Indian Art Review

India Art Collective - India's Online Art Fair - A perspective

2011-11-19T21:54:00.007+05:30

Dear Friends,

I am posting on the blog after a long time !

Well here is my frank take on The Indian Contemporary Art scene and more importantly on India Art Collective, India's first online art fair which opened to the public recently.

I surfed the entire online fair and found it indeed a great initiative in the Indian art scene.We had the VIP online art fair in the US and although the VIP art fair had its share of technical glitches, it still has impressive galleries in its upcoming second edition.

Coming back to the India Art Collective, Sapna Kar who has done some key charity auctions around the country and Swapnil who I know from her earlier days at The Oberoi, are the two people who introduced me to the concept. I liked the idea a lot because I firmly believe that the future is online. Speak to any important gallery with top end programming and most of the business gets conducted online.

Dinesh and Minal changed the game of online art sales with maybe the only successful predominantly art auction website, Saffronart when others had failed internationally to sell art this way. The success of Saffronart inspired many and I have always used their auction archives to research price movements in the Indian art space.

What Sapna and her team have done is brave by any standards, they have not only convinced the galleries to join in an online art fair but also tried to introduce price transparency in a market which has no clue on pricing to say the least. I see so many same pieces by artists, same sizes, nearly the same quality and the galleries have differential pricing !

But that should not discourage you from surfing the art fair online.So, take out some time and travel through a journey of Indian Contemporary art as nowhere will you get a range as diverse as this in terms of genre or pricing points.

All, I can say is that there are some great deals available from the galleries who have got it right and then there are some galleries who have just no clue and the works are priced incorrectly.

I liked quite a lot of shows online, my favorites are Gallery Ske and Vadehra Art gallery, nice works and it made me go back again to have a look.

It is important that galleries and artists learn that if they sell 2 works in a year, then that is not the true value of their work and in a transparent medium like this they maybe tempted to price higher until unless you are an established artist or gallery and completely secure about your price.

So do no hesitate to ask for a discount, send an email or make a call !

Overall, very refreshing and a very nice initiative, so do log in NOW !

Cheers

Kapil

Kapil Chopra is Senior Vice President of Oberoi Hotels & Resorts.He writes a blog on collecting and investing in Indian Contemporary Art at www.indianartinvest.blogspot.com.He also writes for The Telegraph Newspaper in the Sunday magazine " Graphiti" every fortnight. In Delhi, he writes for "The Mail Today " Newspaper and the "First City" Magazine.

Collective Metamorphosis curated by Kapil Chopra at Nature Morte,New Delhi

2011-07-24T20:32:00.019+05:30

Dear Friends,

Well, after a successful opening of The Oberoi, Gurgaon which opened in April and kept me busy for the last 6-8 months, I am back on the art scene with even more enthusiasm.

The hotel has already made into the the nominations for "Hotels to watch out for" for the World's best new hotel awards to be announced in Las Vegas in August.

In these 6 months absence from the art scene, bestcollegeart.com an art initiative supported by me has grown from strength to strength and now sold over 200 works in 10 months.

The aim for the initiative was to remove two key bottlenecks in collecting contemporary art which was price and access, so price was a key point and access was that you look at the work in high resolution from over 700 artists and have the work shipped to your home.

The idea was to have people collect art and even gift it to each other, anything that increases the collector base in this country!

So here we are, celebrating the first anniversary of Bestcollegeart.com with my first show as a curator and opening at one of India's most prominent art galleries "Nature Morte" called Collective Metamorphosis which opened on the 23rd of July at 7 PM.

Some details of the show and my opening notes for all the readers of this blog, please do visit the show as the show is on till 1st of August, everyday from 11 AM to 6 PM except Sundays.......

I am a collector but not a curator!

I start with this line as it reflects the philosophy behind this show. I am a collector, I love Indian Contemporary Art and believe it has enriched me in more ways than one. I am not a curator but deeply concerned with what is happening in the world of Indian Contemporary Art.

I believe we need to make art more accessible both in terms of price and ease of access. This will not only encourage artists but also attract many more individuals to engage and collect art.

This was one of the key reasons for establishing Bestcollegeart.com, an art initiative in which we gave an opportunity to every artist to load his best 5 works and sell to collectors. Today with over 700 works loaded and over 180 artists, Best collegeart.com is India's largest art initiative and has sold over 200 works in its 10 months since inception. All works expire in 6 months so the content is always fresh and you can buy online to have it delivered to your home.

Peter Nagy gave the initiative a head start last year when he curated the opening exhibition "The Present is Now" which opened to rave reviews.

"Collective Metamorphosis" was a title which took a long time for me to decide. Finally, I titled it so because I knew all the artists displaying in this show for over a year. We had spoken to each other, discussed the inspiration behind the works, their personal motivation, agreed and disagreed on many points in this journey. In this entire interaction, we contributed to each other's learning and enriched ourselves as artists and a collector. Collective Metamorphosis is our journey through the trials and tribulations of Indian Contemporary Art and our take on the art that you will see.

My only brief to all the artists was to do what they do best and not confine them with a theme, as a theme can sometimes restrict. I believe that when 5 distinct individuals with their own unique approach to art will present the works of passion that they have created, there will be a linkage which will then come through on its own.

Paribartana Mohanty was first seen in a major show at Bestcollegeart.com where his Oil on canvas works were picked up by collectors even before the show started. Paribartana picks up his characters from people around us and then presents his own interpretation of them. The characters come out from the canvas with hues of black and dark shades in the background. The oil on canvas works are powerful, well executed and haunting in their own way, never fading from your memory.

Deepjyoti Kalita epitomises the influence of Baroda school of art to me, challenging the boundaries and pushing the envelope with each work. He does wall mounted installations and kinetic works, so each work has significant movement and the effect on the viewer is much more than a static painting. His characters are generally caught up with a choice that they need to make in life. The works always create a disbelief when they are viewed by collectors as he tends to surprise with lighting and kinetics.

Kumar Kanti Sen quit a lucrative job heading the design function for a top company and followed his passion for art. He is one of the most passionate and committed artists I have seen and someone who experiments continuously with all the mediums. His paper works are vibrant, have a flaming intensity and draw you towards them. I have always felt a certain energy in his works and in parts I feel like the characters he draws so meticulously are on fire.

Gopal Samantray has a take on the rapid urbanisation where cities are now expanding beyond the boundaries and infringing on forests and living spaces of animals. In his works, the animals come into urban spaces as their natural habitats are eroded by urban spaces. He paints a satirical image of leopards and tigers coming out of the forests and into our homes for no fault of theirs.

Tauseef Khan has worked his way up, installing some of the best shows for some of the biggest names in the world of Indian Contemporary art and still not losing that fire within to paint a new landscape. He paints images of Delhi's monuments and gardens seen through a wine glass, a comment on how we view our culture and heritage. The approach to his works is refreshing and the paintings are distinctive.

I am just a collector and someone who appreciates the finer things in life which includes working for The Oberoi Group. I have learnt a lot in my journey through the world of Indian Contemporary Art and enjoyed putting this together.

I hope you enjoy viewing this show at Nature Morte till 1st August or online at bestcollegeart.com.

Cheers

Kapil

Kapil Chopra is Senior Vice President of Oberoi Hotels & Resorts.He writes a blog on collecting in Indian Contemporary Art at www.indianartinvest.blogspot.com.He also writes for The Telegraph Newspaper in the Sunday magazine " Graphiti" every fortnight. In Delhi, he writes for "The Mail Today " Newspaper and the "First City" Magazine.

Lasting Art Impressions of 2010 !

2011-01-02T23:28:00.009+05:30

Dear Friends,

Here are the 3 artists who impressed me the most in 2010, they are unique and distinctive in their own way and at values which are reasonable. Do check them out as they make it to my top picks for 2010. This is a copy of the article published in The Telegraph newspaper's Sunday magazine "Graphiti" and reaching close to a million readers.Comments are welcome !

As another year draws to a close, I sit back and reflect on the artists who impressed me the most in the last 12 months.

They all come from different backgrounds and different cities but they have one thing in common; the intensity and drive to do something different. They’re all unique and distinctive in their approach.

The first time I saw the works of Deepjyoti Kalita was at Latitude 28 run by Bhavna Kakar, who still holds the record for showing at least one artist every year who impresses me with his work and style. Kalita obtained his Bachelor’s in 2008 from the Faculty of Fine Arts, Baroda, and followed it with a Master’s in Sculpture from the institution two years later and won several awards when in college.

Kalita, who was part of First Look 2010, does what I call wall mounted installations — the works hang on a wall like a normal painting but have moving images. And he works with an electronic engineer to complete them.

I was most impressed with the image of a man on a bench moving between a gas mask and a man with a typewriter in a glass jar. At the click of a button, the man moves as does the light behind him. The work is stunning in its visual appeal and yet its message of being caught in a situation and unable to decide is haunting. I also like his other works, the key being his use of technology to convey a message and at the same time working with traditional watercolours and outlines. I was most impressed by the amalgamation. Large scale works from him, sized at a minimum of 3ft by 5ft with all the circuitry, were priced between Rs 1.5 lakh to Rs 1.8 lakh.

The Incompetence Of Being Complete by Deepjyoti Kalita

Another artist who caught my eye was Paribartana Mohanty. I was told about his works by Peter Nagy from Nature Morte who was curating a show for Bestcollegeart.com and scouting for some great fresh talent. He ended up with seven top picks and they all made it to his record-selling show The Present is Now on Bestcollegeart.com, an online initiative for great art at reasonable prices.

When I first saw the works I was impressed by the fact that they were all very intense and oil on canvas which is rare nowadays as you’ve to paint layer by layer and wait for the paint to dry. All six works in the show sold before the show opened, taking me back to the 2007 days when works would sell before the exhibition formally opened. The difference here was it was happening for someone who was virtually unknown and only due to the brilliance of his work which was spotted by a top curator.

Mohanty was then featured as an artist to watch out for by art critic Johny ML in his Sandarbh residency. While he was there, he was declared the artist of the year by FICA and won India’s top art prize. That award gave him a three-month residency to hone up his skills in Switzerland and a solo show at Vadehra Art gallery. Watch out for him — he’s one of the most impressive artists that I have seen in recent times.

Paribartana Mohanty’s work Bandwala, Then And Disco

Another artist to look out for is Saad Qureshi, based in London. He finished from The Slade School of Fine Art with a Master’s in painting. Qureshi shot to fame as he was among the six finalists for the reality TV show by Charles Saatchi, chosen from thousands of applicants. London’s Aicon Art Gallery, managed by the very experienced Jag Mehta, spotted Qureshi’s talent before he became well known and he had a solo again with Aicon post his reality TV success in London called Disappearing in Yesterday.

Saad is exceptional in his treatment but the painting which impressed me the most from his solo show was Via Dolorosa which shows railway tracks set in a barren landscape that disappear into the distance. They fade away and the imagery used with Urdu inscriptions between the railway tracks gives quite a contrasting feel — soft dialect in a hard landscape. He also uses texture to great effect and the subtlety of his work is breathtaking. Again a body of work which makes you ponder as there are no answers — but you see what you perceive.

Via Dolorosa by artist Saad Qureshi

So these are the three artists to keep in mind all working in different mediums — from wall mounted kinetics to deep oil on canvas — all ending with subtle touches and taking you on a journey which promises more but can’t be seen!

Kapil Chopra is Senior Vice President of Oberoi Hotels & Resorts.He writes a blog on collecting and investing in Indian Contemporary Art at www.indianartinvest.blogspot.com.He also writes for The Telegraph Newspaper in the Sunday magazine " Graphiti" every fortnight. In Delhi, he writes for "The Mail Today " Newspaper and the "First City" Magazine.

NDTV Interview on " The Indian Art Scene "

2010-10-17T17:42:00.007+05:30

Dear Friends,

This is the link of a discussion on The Indian Art Scene on NDTV. It was a great discussing the intricacies of the Indian art scene with Pankaj Pachauri- Anhor for Money Matters on NDTV, Amit Sarup - President- Religare Art, Swapan Seth-Collector,Roshni Vadehra- Vadehra Art Gallery.

This discussion happened a couple of months back and is a 45 minutes show, so do have time on your side when you are viewing this !

Cheers

Kapil Chopra is Senior Vice President of Oberoi Hotels & Resorts.He writes a blog on collecting and investing in Indian Contemporary Art at www.indianartinvest.blogspot.com.He also writes for The Telegraph Newspaper in the Sunday magazine " Graphiti". In Delhi, he writes for "The Mail Today " Newspaper and the "First City" Magazine.

Greed Factor !

2010-10-17T17:29:00.011+05:30

Dear Friends,

Well, my day job of running hotels is keeping me busy from posting more often on the blog, but here is my latest article in The Telegraph newspaper reaching over a million readers. It is critical to be careful lest you make a wrong decision in buying contemporary art at ridiculous valuations.

Also, it is quite disappointing to see this attitude from leading artists where works are being churned out like a factory, reminds me of real estate companies launching a new apartment complex every month. Such short term approaches are not healthy for the overall state of an already fragile market. So enjoy your art but be careful !

As autumn comes and brings cooler temperatures with it the activity in the art world picks up and it’s now time to take stock. We’ve just had the September autumn auctions by all three major auction houses — Christie’s, Sotheby’s and Saffronart.

With all asset classes, including real estate and stock markets, being close to all time highs, a lot was expected in the art market considering the excess liquidity sloshing around and the renewed interest in the modern masters like Raza, Souza and Husain seen in the past six months. However, the results were tepid for both the Modern and the Contemporary Art market categories.

For me, that was not surprising at all. In fact I was amazed that the party in the Modern Art market lasted as long as it did. If one was to combine all the Souza works in the three auctions, over 23 per cent did not sell and 28 per cent just managed to sell at the lower end of the estimates. So 51 per cent of all Souza works were not really attracting attention, signalling that the large supply in the last few months had finally taken a toll.

Last Howl from the Cross by F.N. Souza (1963)

The speculators in the Modern Art market are exiting and the private art museums bought what they had to buy so the market slowed due to buyer fatigue. You will still get an auction record when an exceptional work by a modern master hits the market but for more mediocre works, it will be a tough climb from here.

The common thread visible in all the auctions was the fact that most of the works were selling at the lower end of the price band given by the auction houses, so either the estimates were too aggressive or the buyers were just not keen on picking up mediocre works.

The contemporary art market was up 32 per cent in volume as compared to June 2010 but that was helped by the fact that six Subodh Gupta lots were up for auction and they contributed 50 per cent of the entire value of all auction lots. In terms of total value, the sale value was still lower by a whopping 73 per cent compared to the record values of autumn 2008.

an untitled work by Subodh Gupta (2005)

Frankly, I don’t see any recovery in the auction market for the top ten Indian Contemporary artists looking ahead. The reasons are simple. Most of the top Indian Contemporary artists that feature in the auctions with exception of one or two artists have no clue about art valuations and are pricing on the higher side driven by that old enemy of value — greed.

Also the contemporary art market for the so-called top artists is functioning like the real estate market that I see in the Delhi suburbs of Gurgaon and Noida. There is a new launch every week by the same developer who wants to milk the cow before it gets too late and the tide turns.

Why I make this comparison is simple. If you are a passionate artist, driven by quality, how can you possibly churn out three solo shows in three months in different countries, flood the market with supply, keep your prices high and still expect to sell? What you’re creating is just a factory which with the help of studio assistants is churning out art without any soul and trying to rake in the bucks. Most of our top artists are now doing exactly this, so there is a solo show every month and a couple of group shows in the middle.

The artist may benefit by selling more in the short term and so does the gallery owner who is happy with his commission on selling the work. Both of them have forgotten the collector who has everything to lose even if he buys one work from the exhibition as the prices coupled with so much supply will ensure that he loses money on every purchase.

Only T.V. Santhosh and N.S. Harsha in my top ten artists list have current values that are still below auction prices which means that if you buy a T.V. Santhosh work at Rs 40 lakh for a 6ft by 4ft canvas you are assured of a better price in the auction. In the other cases, except for these two artists, you would most likely end up a financial loser if you ever have to sell the work and that too by a good 30 per cent to 40 per cent.

T.V. Santhosh’s Scars of an Ancient Error-I (2006)

Someone needs to correct this and knock some sense into artists’ pricing. Otherwise my advice is to just save your money for some cutting-edge art by some very talented young artists instead of buying factory-made art with just a name and a fancy signature.

So in the coming months, go around some galleries or browse the net for some great quality art. You want art that is reasonably priced and will give you aesthetic pleasure besides appreciating over time.

Paradise Lost

2010-08-14T23:24:00.010+05:30

Dear Readers,

My latest article in The Telegraph, Sunday edition reaching over a million readers, comments as always are welcome. Do log on to www.bestcollegeart.com, an initiative supported by me among others. We believe it gives the power to every artist to reach out to an aspiring collector and it is not for profit ! More on that in the next post ! I love Veer Munshi's latest show on Kashmir, maybe a bit too apt for the current developments in Kashmir !

When it comes to the creativity, I believe no place in India is as synonymous with art as Calcutta — the history, heritage and culture of the city are all redolent of art. Some of the most important galleries which started supporting Indian art long before people really began buying it, like CIMA, have been based here. But for the last few years, a lot of Contemporary Art events and also some of the most important shows have not been happening in the city. However, that looks set to change — especially with significant art initiatives like the Kolkata Museum of Modern Art (KMOMA) coming up in the city.

Shrapnel-Detail from Chamber, an acrylic on hand made paper pasted on board, by Veer Munshi

Other harbingers of a pick-up in activity are that India’s only gallery selected for the prestigious Frieze Art Fair in London, Experimenter, is from Calcutta. And I take heart about the art scene in the city from looking at the programming of key galleries like CIMA, Akar Prakar, Aakriti and see how everything is changing.

Also, what intrigues me is that a senior artist who has spent nearly all his painting career in Delhi and is originally from Kashmir, should go to Calcutta for his monumental solo show. But then, that’s the intrigue and mysticism of Calcutta in the art world. Veer Munshi, opens his show on August 3 at the Birla Academy of Art and Culture, curated by Ranjit Hoskote.

I had the opportunity to preview Veer’s show and you can see that the slightly older school in the Contemporary Art space follows the rules in what goes into making great art. The works are a reflection of the current times in Kashmir and Veer’s journey over the years in a place that he loves so much, where he grew up and that are all about breathtaking scenic beauty and “paradise on earth”.

His photographic series on “Pandit Houses” is reminiscent of the Hindu Brahmin architecture, but the desolate and dilapidated houses also point to the stark reality of the migration of Kashmiri Pandits who had to leave these magnificent homes behind due to terror threats. Veer travels around Kashmir to capture these haunting images of majestic houses just left as ruins in the beautiful landscape.

Pandit House, a photograph on archival paper, by Veer Munshi

Veer also draws your attention to works like Shrapnel that reflect the pain and angst of a generation caught between terrorist organisations and the government. That’s a sad reflection on what is happening in Kashmir today from someone who has lived half his life there. The works will strike a chord as it is art that reflects on the political and social equation and emotional trauma in Kashmir — all captured in Veer’s works and through his lens.

Turning away for a moment from Calcutta, another interesting initiative which has just been launched online is Bestcollegeart.com. Every year over 1,200 artists graduate from art colleges and only a handful of them make it to top galleries. Most abandon their dreams and due to financial constraints their talent comes to naught.

But now they are getting a new platform. Bestcollegeart.com is a collective initiative by some of India’s top art collectors, curators and gallerists to give everyone an equal opportunity platform to display and sell their art. (I must state a vested interest here as I am involved in supporting this initiative).

It’s not for profit and it allows any artist while in college or even someone who has graduated as long as a decade ago to load up to five works at prices decided by the artists. The quality of the art and the prices are reviewed by a curatorial board which urges the artists to price the works right so that collectors can buy.

We see excellent quality work uploaded by artists like Ashis Mondal, who paints a shirt which has been spoilt by ink leakage. This is actually a satire on the fact that a careless leakage without protection can also lead to AIDS.

A Little Negligence by Ashis Mondal

I always hear ‘we love art but can’t afford the prices’ and ‘how do we know that what we buy is authentic’. Well, the average prices on this site are below Rs 20,000 and no work can be priced over Rs 99,000. There are even works for as low as Rs 1,800.

The key is for all of us to support art in our country — either by visiting events or by acquiring art which is within our individual budgets. So whether it’s attending a heart-stopping show by Veer Munshi or supporting an online art initiative that could give you something very affordable to brighten your walls, this monsoon season is all about living with art!

Hype and Reality !

2010-07-30T22:50:00.008+05:30

Dear Friends,

My latest article in "The Telegraph" Newspaper reaching over a million readers for your reading pleasure, comments are welcome !

If you have picked up any newspaper in the past month, no doubt you’ve read stories announcing new record values for works of some Indian masters. But as they say, the devil lies in the detail and that is where a sensational headline can give people the wrong idea about the art market being on a new roll.

Let me make this easy for you so that you get a clear understanding of what’s going on in the art market. Take a look at the summer auctions at the major auction houses.

Starting with the modern art market, yes prices and volumes for some of the works by key artists — Hussain, Raza, Gaitonde, Souza and Tyeb Mehta — are back up at the peak levels witnessed in June 2008. This marks a significant recovery if you recollect that volumes in the modern art market had tumbled 63 per cent and prices fell 46 per cent between September 2008 and March 2009.

The key highlight in the summer sales was the auction of 152 works from the Souza estate through Christie’s which went at double their high price estimate. There were some very good works and it was an opportunity for people who had missed acquiring Souza works to buy them.

But is the excitement triggered by news reports of the record price of Rs 16 crore fetched by Raza’s Saurashtra justified? Well yes and no. Yes, because it was an exceptional work and no because what has sold in the auctions at higher prices are works which have been exceptional in terms of high quality, rarity and provenance, so it deserved the price but not the hype.

Artist S.H. Raza

Works which do not meet these criteria are still not selling or selling at much discounted valuations.

So be careful in this new market. I have started getting a lot of calls from my friends who say they would now like to acquire a work by one of the modern masters as the prices are expected to go even higher and their budget range of Rs 20 lakh to Rs 30 lakh will get them nothing that is even close to outstanding.

Jumping into the market now — unless you are very certain about the quality of what you are buying will only make the make a gallery richer and the collector or buyer poorer — saddled with a work that is tough to sell. I already know of someone who has bought a very ordinary Raza work at a valuation which should have been 50 per cent below what he has paid. Remember the “golden rule of significance” whenever you collect art — namely buy significant and defining works.

Now to the Contemporary Art market or younger artists as we know them. They had a 93 per cent correction in volume, as per Art Tactic, an independent art research firm, which means auction houses had very few people consigning Contemporary Art and the prices slid a massive 85 per cent between September 2008 and March 2009. Well, they are still down by 35 per cent from their peak. Volumes are better but not even close to what you saw in the boom times.

But you may have noticed that Bharti Kher set a new record of close to Rs 7 crore for her work "The Skin speaks a Language not its own" at Sotheby’s evening sale. The work was sold in 2007 at Art Basel and is her most defining work till date. The work according to international sources was sold again in 2008 at the peak of the art market at close to this current valuation. This means that the person who consigned this work having bought it when prices were at their peak in 2008 really has not gained much. Lesson: it never does pay to buy into the hype.

Bharti Kher’s work titled The Skin speaks a Language not its own

Interestingly Subodh Gupta has slowly been creeping up the charts again. I always get surprised when his paintings sell well because, according to me, Subodh is one of the most brilliant installation artists of our times, but when his paintings sell at higher prices it’s always a sign that people are again not buying significant works from his stable.

An untitled work by Subodh Gupta

His famous installation The Hungry God is a case in point and when it comes on the auction market it will set a new record for contemporary art in India. Again, though as some collectors get smarter, Bharti’s significant work sold at Sotheby’s and Subodh’s work — which was estimated to fetch Rs 2.5 crore to Rs 3.5 crore — did not sell.

The lessons from the summer auction are very clear, whether it is in the modern space or the Contemporary space, buy exceptional works, buy works that are significant of their times and have a good provenance. Do not be carried away and end up collecting or investing in high value art without research.

Also remember to analyse price patterns if you’re investing rather than collecting. One of the reasons for new records being established is also the fact that private museums being set up in India are buying. This is further adding fuel to the fire and prices for exceptional works from the modern masters are touching lifetime highs. Also I fear that market speculative forces are again back at work and it pays to be cautious. There is definitely some level of insider trading again visible in the auctions.

And of course, the final message to collectors, the most important golden rule —buy only what you love!

San Francisco Musings !

2010-06-27T22:12:00.009+05:30

Dear Friends,

This is my latest article published in "Graphiti" magazine in The Telegraph newspaper reaching over a million readers. Enjoy !

The escape from scorching temperatures in New Delhi took me to San Francisco this summer for a holiday and my trip was perfectly timed. It was impossible to miss the hoardings everywhere for the 75th Anniversary celebration of the renowned San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, or SFMOMA as it’s widely known.

San Francisco can be quite chilly with cold winds in the summer and I set off to the museum in nice cool weather. The great thing about museums in the US is the way they make it interesting with architecture, sense of arrival and also the ambience created. The museum shops are so attractive that you want to browse through them for ages. At SFMOMA the shop was well stocked and really huge and it was, in fact, one of the largest and best collections that I have ever seen in a museum shop.

Finally, on the second floor what awaited me was a visual treat and an art lover’s dream come true. Celebrating SFMOMA’s impact on modern and Contemporary art, the exhibition “The Anniversary Show” traces the individuals and the art that have made SFMOMA the institution it is today. Throughout the year, they will continue this effort of presenting a series of exhibitions illustrating the story of artists, collectors, cultural mavericks and San Francisco leaders who founded, built and have animated the museum.

The show was co-organised by Janet Bishop, SFMOMA curator of painting and sculpture, Corey Keller, SFMOMA associate curator of photography and Sarah Roberts, SFMOMA associate curator of collections and research who put together this collection of 400 works of art.

The show began with an introductory selection titled “San Francisco Views,1935 to Now”. It had images of San Francisco from 1935 to a poster by famous artist Martin Venezky titled San Francisco Prize Poster: Harvey Milk Plaza 2000. These works revealed the many ways the city has inspired artists over the last 75 years.

The other thing I admired was how top collectors and industrialists had donated their priceless personal collections to the SFMOMA. Industrialist and art collector Albert Bender’s gifts to the museums were in the next room and these included works by both Diego Rivera who has painted the magnificent murals at the National Palace in Mexico and also the work of his wife Frida Kahlo.

The next room was even more stunning with works by Salvador Dali, Pablo Picasso, Paul Klee, Henri Matisse and Marc Chagall. I have never seen such works by such exceptional artists under one roof and barely metres away from each other. Also, there were bronze works by Alberto Giacometti whose sculpture held the $105 million record as the most expensive piece of art ever sold till it was beaten by a Pablo Picasso work which sold for $106 million recently.

Going through the exhibition I was once again struck by the fact that art is reflection of the times we live in. The period from 1935 to 1945 also was a commentary on World War II with some haunting works.

Apart from the masters, I was most impressed by artists who deliberately disregarded traditional boundaries between media like Robert Rauschenberg who died in 2008. As early as 1954 he did an untitled stunning work which in which he used oil, newsprint, fabric and 3D wooden and metal objects on canvas!

An untitled mixed media work by Robert Rauschenberg

Such creative use of mixed media took place more than 50 years back — and it’s still not very prevalent in the Indian contemporary space and that for me is the mark of a genius. The section was very aptly called “Pushing Boundaries”. Rauschenberg and the others featured in this section dared to engage in a new medium and move in their own direction when it was not conceivable. I was also attracted to an artist who redefined the contemporary art space with his works. On show by Andy Warhol was a unique work that was very different from his usual celebrity portraits. This was Self Portrait done in 1967 and was an acrylic and silkscreen enamel on canvas.

Andy Warhol’s Self Portrait

The most photographed piece in the entire exhibition because of its stunning visual appeal was a sculpture of Michael Jackson with his monkey Bubbles and it looked amazing in the centre of the hall. It was a ceramic work in life-size dimensions and with glaze and paint which made it shine, giving it a very nice finish. In the background of this work, was an untitled piece by Christopher Wool with just the words ‘adversary’ written in three lines. The combination effect of viewing these two works together really made you think about the life and times of Michael Jackson.

Michael Jackson & Bubbles by Jeff Koons

Overall, as I walked out after viewing the best in modern masters and the best of International Contemporary art, I was humbled by how everyone in society had come together to do their bit to share their collections and create such a magnificent institution in a great city.

I wait with a lot of anticipation to welcome something as magnificent in India so that we can pass on great art in our country to the next generation !

Art from the Heart !

2010-05-22T06:31:00.010+05:30

Dear Readers,

My latest article in The Telegraph newspaper reaching over a million readers, for your reading pleasure. Now get instant updates every time a new blog post is written by either becoming a follower of this blog or putting in your email address on the top right hand side of this blog.

I love watching children drawing what they see around them. The doodles and pencil lines come from the heart and have a lot of passion in every stroke.

The opposite is often true in the Contemporary Art space nowadays. The joy of drawing and painting seem to have almost vanished. So the artist comes up with a concept and then using a computer — and perhaps Photoshop — produces an image which is then painted and churned out. What you get is art that looks nice but is without heart and soul. Some of the top Indian contemporary artists have fallen into this trap and this is a fact that often worries me.

So the moment an artist starts to sell for over Rs 3 lakh or so, you hear that he or she has hired a couple of studio assistants to help prepare the base of the canvas. In scores of cases these assistants actually paint the computer-generated image. This style of working, I believe, is one of the reasons for similar looking work being churned out all the time. Also, don’t forget that studio assistants come cheap in this country. Many of them finish from art colleges and then survive living someone else’s dream.

Let me turn to an interesting show I went to recently by an artist who paints from her heart. Ranjeeta Kant, who trained under the eminent artist Rameshwar Broota, has painted for years for the love of art and not for money. Her latest exhibition at Delhi’s Gallerie Alternatives called The Dance of the Rainbow was inspired by a trip to Bali.

The Kachak Dancers and The Abode (above) by Ranjeeta Kant

She was deeply affected by the lush green tropical island — everything from the green paddy fields and the exquisite lotus ponds and lovely flowers to the deep blue ocean and the tranquil images of Buddha everywhere. The myriad hues of nature and this entire experience have been captured in rich greens, magical blues and the striking hints of red that together result in stunning canvas works.

One is immediately drawn to the works as it’s clear that Ranjeeta has worked on the canvas and the resulting art is a work of passion. In spite of the detailed canvas work, the prices are reasonable and most of the works are under Rs 2 lakh for a 3ft by 4ft canvas. Smaller works sell for close to a lakh. It was one of those shows where you’d feel inspired to instantly reach for your chequebook.

Another show which impressed me recently was On the Darkest Night I Can See the Light at Delhi’s Gallery Seven Art run by Aparajita Jain. This was the first of six exhibitions being planned by Aparajita under the collective name First Showings. Helping her to put this clutch of exhibitions together is curator Deeksha Nath. Together, they’ll attempt to spot talent fresh out from the art colleges.

On display at the first show were three Chennai-based artists, Kumaresan Selvaraj, Aneesh Kalode Rajan and Sarvanan Parasuraman. Selvaraj works with surfaces and textures. So you had works with a number of layers on every surface — some were plain but stunning and you could feel the textures.

What we see conceals a lot behind it by Kumaresan Selvaraj

Rajan had interesting works called Perspectives. In these he imagines what he, his cousins and Michelangelo see in a group of clouds and how these images are dependent on their present preoccupations.

I was also impressed by Parasuraman who uses a variety of mediums like vinyl stickers, ball bearings, sand, silicon and fibreglass. He had done a rope sculpture using sand and silica and from a distance it looked exactly like a rope. Also, he had done a work made by ball bearings forming a pattern.

The good thing about the show was the freshness of the ideas behind all the works which was very stimulating. Also, there was the crucial fact that the costliest work was for Rs 95,000 and most works were in the Rs 40,000 to Rs 60,000 range.

It was art that I enjoyed!

Kapil Chopra is Senior Vice President of Oberoi Hotels & Resorts. He writes for the "The Telegraph" newspaper and specifically for the Sunday magazine "Graphiti" which has a readership of over a million readers. In Delhi, he writes a column on the art market in "The Mail Today" newspaper and also has written for the "First City" magazine.

The Berlin Canvas !

2010-04-25T18:03:00.010+05:30

Dear Readers,

Here is my latest article published in The Telegraph newspaper in the Sunday edition reaching over 1 million readers......

Europe has been really cold this winter with a lot of freak storms and a chilly winter. In Berlin, though the art scene has been hot and vibrant. Due to the lovely confluence of cultures, Berlin attracts the best artists and with rental spaces still reasonable as compared to the rest of Europe, it has some of the most stunning gallery spaces.

Both Bodhi and Nature Morte, India’s top contemporary art galleries were present in Berlin at one time (Nature Morte is still around here) and there are also galleries like Christian Hosp which have been showing a lot of Indian and Pakistan contemporary art. Then came the recession and running a gallery with declining sales became a losing proposition and Bodhi had to shut shop.

I was fortunate that there was an important show at the architecturally inspirational “Haus Der Kulturen Der Welt”, the house of world cultures. The building looks like a flying saucer and is brilliantly conceptualised. The curators called the show “Why all the rage?”.

We had three important curators — Valerie Smith, Sussane Stemmler and Cordula Hamschmidt. They explored instances of rage and how it plays a role in people’s life — how rage gets manifested in communities and the effect that it has on people’s minds and bodies. The idea of rage as transformative energy is a key concept to the development of “On Rage” a vehicle from the negative to the positive, from status quo to revolution, from hopelessness to control.

Two artists who really stood out for me in the entire show were Shoja Ajari, an Iranian artist who now lives in New York. He was the co-winner of a Silver Lion award at Venice Film festival and he does photographs and video installations. Final Judgment, his work, was a video projection on canvas and projects the moral tales of Shiite Islam concerning the judgment day. Then inside this intricate work there was recent news footage of Muslim global political activity. It was stunning to see a canvas with flitting moving images — a very strong representation.

Shoja Azari‘s Final Judgement

Seher Shah was at her best with large scale drawings from her solo show “Paper to Monument 2”. These drawings dwelled on the complexities of urban excavation through public memory. Her three works were in the centre of the display and the black-and-white contrast of her drawings again reinforced my belief that she is one of the most important young artists of our times.

Paper to Monument II by Seher Shah

I also went to Probir Gupta’s show at Nature Morte Berlin. Probir’s work touches upon issues of war, religion, development, globalisation and genocide. He uses shrapnel in his work that he sources from abandoned military waste. Using this debris as his “clay,” he models mutant and macabre bodies and landscapes. The resulting paintings, fascinatingly complex with unexpected shots of colour, are chaotic to look at. Technically, he employs a thick, almost violent, use of impasto and brush strokes.

Assembled Identities by Probir Gupta

I liked the works which are not new but are the works that did not sell in the Philips de Pury auction house exhibition in January 2009. The works were beautiful but you could see that the pricing could have been better and hence even when I went, only one had sold. Large canvas works were priced at Rs 25 lakh. Now with the top names in Indian contemporary art down by 80 per cent from the peaks, Probir has still not understood the reality on pricing.

Artists need to understand that just because they sold a few works some years back at the height of the Indian contemporary art boom that does not become a pricing platform for years to come. I would have ideally liked the works to be priced drastically lower.

But in the art world, egos are bigger than usual and logic dies a slow death. That also shrinks the small collector base as people don’t like being taken for a ride. It’s high time that artists understood that collectors will not buy without logic and the fact that only one work has virtually sold in the last 15-18 months is a testimony to the new and informed collector !

Well, the journey was not complete in the art city of the world without staying in the art’otel at Berlin City Centre West. What attracted me to the hotel was the collection of Andy Warhol works they had. I enjoyed staying a in a hotel surrounded by the pop art works of Warhol and the rooms in bright orange, purple and green. Let us see when we get our first art hotel in the country!

Painting with Passion !

2010-04-25T16:50:00.016+05:30

Dear Readers,

Here is the electronic version of the latest article published in the Sunday magazine of The Telegraph Newspaper reaching over a million readers !

I meet a lot of people who look askance at the new wave of Contemporary Art and would rather have pretty paintings which resonate in their living spaces. My take on this has been that art is not about only paintings but the entire gamut of expression from sculpture, installations and photograph to video art. This week I want to focus on an artist who is more in the original genre of painting and creates stunning pieces with a background and experience that actually makes you calmer when you view his work.

It’s interesting to meet Sidharth, who was born in a Sikh family and later in life, moved away from the worldly pleasures of life to join a monastery and become a monk. In the monastery he was named Sidharth — the name he still bears today. But after some time in the monastery he left and using all his accumulated learning started painting.

Sidharth is an artist with a difference in the Contemporary Art landscape of artists in the country. I have always been amazed by his connect with nature and the meticulous research that goes into every work. In the era of computer- generated art and studio assistants, Sidharth stands out as he does not even use commercially available colours. The other thing that he uses a lot is thin gold foil. That gold work is clearly visible on the canvas. In each of the canvases he usually narrates a story using the images.

The skills that he learnt at the Namgyal Monastery help him derive his colours and shades from Mother Nature. He uses natural pigments, vegetable dyes and his intrinsic knowledge of the topography to make his own colours in various hues. Always, very curious to learn and imbibe more, I have in my association of many years with him seen him use and implement the best techniques from Chinese, Japanese and now Russian schools of art.

He also makes his own handmade paper and thanks to his use of natural colours, you find a rarely seen luminosity in his works. The other thing which is very noticeable in his works is that most of the background colours are very bright, which is a result of the natural pigments and dyes that he uses. Crucially, the people shown in his work have faces without a predominant nose. That’s because Sidharth believes that the nose represents ego in our world. He tries to paint people when they are devoid of ego or rather to depict them in a utopian world where there is no ego!

Laughing Cow

His link with Mother Nature was an influence at his latest solo show at Religare Art Gallery in New Delhi. The connect is clearly visible in his series of paintings on the “Cow” — worshipped as a mother figure in India. He focuses on the worshipped Kamadhenu to the cow in the industrialised urban environment today, eating all the garbage and then producing milk which has pollutants causing disease.

Kartar Pur

The Poster Cow

His canvases tell a complete story that focuses on the worshipped Kamadhenu and a satirical comparison to a woman who is running her house with all products derived from milk. The ritual dismembering of the sacrifice is evoked in the dehumanisation of the perception of the cow reduced to its parts as against the various deities residing in Kamadhenu. He calls this work Laughing Cow, and it is his satirical take on the evolution and journey of a cow from ancient times to the urbanised modern world.

Sidharth is an expensive artist and although he did sell at Sotheby’s once, he generally doesn’t feature on auction circuits and the recession actually did not hit him much. He has a stream of steady collectors and fans — actress Dimple Kapadia being one of his biggest admirers.

The smaller canvas works are around Rs 2.4 lakh and larger sizes which are 4ft by 5ft can fetch up to Rs 10 lakh to Rs 12 lakh, although there are smaller works starting from Rs 70,000.The prices are steep. But the originality of his paintings and the sheer radiance emanating from what are clearly works of love painted with passion makes him an artist well worth considering for one’s collection.

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The Art Market - Games People Play !

2010-03-27T21:33:00.009+05:30

Here is my latest article published in "Mail Today" newspaper in New Delhi for your reading pleasure. The Article was published on 26th March.

I see a lot of contemporary art shows opening every week, but there’s one that caught my eye recently, that too at a new space — Rasika Kajaria’s Exhibit 320 at Lado Sarai. What struck me was the cutting- edge work on display, especially that of Kundo Yumnam and Sandip Pisalkar, who made a scooter with a gas pipe that is also good for killing mosquitoes! Pisalkar first tried it out in a slum before putting it up at the show — well, the artists are getting bolder by the day.

On the art market, meanwhile, first sale of the spring season by Saffronart was being watched closely for pointers to the shape of things to come. The sale went by smoothly.

In the contemporary art space, there were no surprises and it was pretty much on predictable lines, except a work by Subodh Gupta that went for Rs 1.7 crore — it was a happy departure from the rates commanded by the artist in last year’s recession- hit market. Auctions in 2009 had seen his work go for Rs 80 lakh to Rs 1.1 crore.

A lot of galleries, collectors and investors ( including art funds) treat auction results as gospel truths and that is why data gets manipulated. The Indian contemporary art market does not have depth and is susceptible to manipulations. Already, Osian’s Art Fund has not been able to pay its investors. And I keep hearing complaints from people who are stuck with wrong valuations by the Copal Art Fund.

Let me give you some real- life examples of how easy it is to manipulate prices if an investor is keen on making a quick buck.

There is a prominent artist from Orissa who has also been shown in the country by the best Indian art galleries. When he started out around five years back, a group of art investors with a manipulative mindset picked him up at a standard rate of Rs 5,000 per square foot and bound him to a contract that required him to give all his work to his paymasters.

The investors then slowly started raising the prices in auctions.

The quality of the work was good and the investors had ample stock. The work was put up in an auction house, the bidding was taken to unrealistic heights by the investors’ friends, who bought a canvas each at every auction, and then these were sold through other auction houses at inflated prices. Their cost of buying their own possessions back was the 15 per cent buyer premium charged by the auction house and their entire stock got re- valued at a level that was seven times higher than the original.

Now this artist, because he was really good, got solo shows at prominent galleries and this further swelled the profits of the first batch of investors. The people who suffered were the later investors who followed auction prices and bought at ridiculous values, and collectors who genuinely liked the artist’s work and paid a price which he does not deserve till date. I saw his works even at the Saffronart auction and some people bought them at stretched valuations. That is how the art market works.

THIS happens all the time. I call some of these artists, auction artists — that is, they owe some part of their growth to friendly auction houses, which sometimes shut their faculties conveniently and sometimes also have a stake in the growing valuations of an artist. So the next time you read that screaming headline, ‘Indian art sets a new high’, don’t buy the hype: scratch the surface and probe deeper. Also, to get closer to the real value of the work of an artist, subtract the 15- 25 per cent buyer premium from the final value shown, for that is added on the final bid after the auction is closed.

Don’t get swayed by the valuation game. Check the background of an artist, be diligent about the research and probe the pricing logic. Also, whenever you intend to buy a canvas for over Rs 2 lakh, just buy from the best and well respected art galleries. In the particular case I have used as an illustration, you’d have still got taken for a ride, but in most cases you’d be protected, for even galleries have learnt from the past.

Auction houses Sotheby’s and Christie’s would have completed their sales by the time this article goes into print and although they have wonderful lots from the modern space, I wasn’t impressed with the contemporary works. All this price manipulation should not stop you from collecting, but don’t get taken for a ride! Buy what you like and only at the right price !

Kapil Chopra is Senior Vice President of Oberoi Hotels & Resorts.He writes a blog on collecting and investing in Indian Contemporary Art at www.indianartinvest.blogspot.com.He also writes for The Telegraph newspaper in the Sunday magazine " Graphiti" every fortnight. In Delhi, he writes for "The Mail Today " newspaper and "First City" magazine.

Eye-catchers with Mithu Sen & Latitude 28 !

2010-03-07T10:39:00.007+05:30

Dear Friends,

Here is the latest article in The Telegraph newspaper Sunday magazine " Graphiti" reaching close to a million readers, for your reading pleasure. If you wish to receive instant updates the moment the blog is updated, please enter your email address on the upper right hand side of the blog, no questions, just your email address for the latest views on Indian Contemporary Art !

The art season is roaring back to life with everyone keen to show after a year of being in the economic doldrums and the calendar for art lovers is growing more hectic. Two shows that have opened in Mumbai and New Delhi grabbed my eye for being distinctive and unique.

Mithu Sen, arguably, one of India’s most talented artists, is having a solo show at Gallery Chemould in Mumbai. She has always been more active in key exhibits internationally including the last one in Vienna but now gallery-goers have a chance to see her at home. I have always regretted the fact that the Indian public have missed out on what Mithu has to offer as her best shows and works are always out of India but now that’s about to change.

In fact, Mithu has presented her most dramatic show ever — called ‘Black Candy’ — which opened a few days ago. The unique thing about the show is that most of the works have three dimensions to them. There’s the drawing which has text on it. That’s accompanied by sound which lends an exceptionally different feel to viewing the art. Also one thing to note about Mithu’s art — it is straight from the heart and controversial.

In this series she is trying to understand the vulnerability that men have and she peers into the desires, pain, sorrow and agony they go through. So the works are sexually very explicit and she engages the viewer in a dialogue with the work. She doesn’t impose any views on you — you relate to the work according to your own responses. Her style is one that I’ve never seen before — the art is powerful and will always stir reaction as it’s created with a lot of passion.

Wrestler by Mithu Sen

Now on also is a show entitled ‘Size matters or.....Does it?’ staged by Bhavna Kakar at her newly opened gallery Latitude 28 ( Latitude 28 is the latitude Delhi is located on!). Kakar is a well-known personality in the art world as the Editor of Art & Deal and has also launched her new Art magazine called Take on Art. As she trained to be an artist, she has a keen curatorial eye and her show is quite interesting. She has had every participating artist work in a large work format and a small work format. This tests the execution skills of the artist and appeals to collector as it allows much more choices.

Now in discussing the theme ‘Size’, we’ve all been taught that bigger is usually better. But for those of us who are on the fence about whether one should work on a small-scale or take that giant leap forward towards a bigger canvas and digging deeper into one’s pocket, here’s some thoughts about whether size matters.

In the speculation-led art market, everything boils down to commerce. Sadly art today has a tendency to be valued not by its quality or subject matter but in square inches and square feet! Kakar seeks to dispel with that notion in her own way with creative works in both formats. So she has a 5-ft x 4-ft canvas by Manjunath Kamath and also a set of twelve 4.5-in x 3.5-in works called True Lies. It’s quite refreshing to see large and small works by all artists in the show. I was also impressed by the visual appeal of a 17-ft work depicting Qawali singers by G.R. Iranna.

Manjunath Kamath’s Lie in Between Question & Answer; (above) Ointment by Baiju Parthan

Baiju Parthan has two works called Ointment in both formats and I was impressed with both works that are about the ideas people have about the world and the lengths to which we go to protect, defend, and propagate them. The very fact there are many views explaining the universe differently suggest that these are all products of engagement. The visual representation of both the works is just stunning.

So here are my picks so if you’re in Delhi or in Mumbai, you have some interesting art shows to visit and engage with both visually and intellectually!

Kapil Chopra is Senior Vice President of Oberoi Hotels & Resorts.He writes a blog on collecting and investing in Indian Contemporary Art at www.indianartinvest.blogspot.com.He also writes for The Telegraph newspaper in the Sunday magazine " Graphiti" every fortnight. In Delhi, he writes for "The Mail Today " newspaper and "First City" magazine. Comments and views are welcome at indianartreview@gmail.com.

Atul Dodiya's Master Stroke !

2010-02-20T18:50:00.008+05:30

Dear Friends,

Here is my article in Mail Today on Atul Dodiya's upcoming art show opening at Vadehra Art Gallery in New Delhi and the price correction that has happened. I saw the images and the works looked quite nice but really 3 works on the basis of images stood out, now sources indicate that the show is sold out. I don't know the identity of the buyers or the motive, I just thought that Atul and Vadehra Art gallery did a smart thing by keeping the price right. I think in a contemporary art market which is an an infancy stage it was quite a welcome decision. Here is the article published on the 19th of February for your reading pleasure.

It is the season of art openings and the curtain is set to go up on many exciting shows this month. If you still haven’t had the time, do check out Resemble Re-Assemble at Devi Art Foundation to view some cutting-edge contemporary art from Pakistan. But that’s not what I am going to dwell upon here. One of the most important openings for the first quarter of 2010 is Atul Dodiya’s Vadehra Art Gallery show on March 5. I’m picking up this show as it offers amazing insights into the Indian contemporary art space. Dodiya, I believe, and so do others in the know, is India’s foremost contemporary artist who also commands the respect of his community.

I’ve seen admiration for him cut across galleries/ collectors. In the boom that drove values to illogically high levels in the Indian art market, the average price of Atul’s works had reached close to a crore. I don’t know who was responsible for it — whether it was his gallery Bodhi, which was representing him at that time, or his own brainwave — but the market was suddenly flooded with scores of his paper works in editions of 12 to 20. Their commercial values were in the range of Rs 6-8 lakh and they were being billed as unique prints because he had done some work on each of them. Then he had a show at Bodhi in Mumbai with 40 watercolours. The sales were brisk and the demand was high. Everyone was happy but the number of works in a speculative art market defied logic, and worse, the quality of this show called Pale Ancestors, was average for his talent.

Even before the market started turning, Dodiya’s values started coming down as there was too much supply and the values were too high — mediocre 30-by-22-inch watercolours were being offered for Rs 20 lakh! As the demand started going down, suddenly there were no takers for his work at those price points. He was not seen at any important show as far as I can remember. The values crashed and Dodiya’s works priced at Rs 20 lakh went for Rs 6 lakh, that too if they found a buyer at the auctions. There was no demand for any of his other works in the secondary market. So, I was happy to receive images of the upcoming Atul Dodiya show passed on by a fellow collector. Note that the images were being circulated a good 45 days before the show is scheduled to open. The works are significant and most of them are 5ft-by-8ft, quite lush in technique and content. What’s commendable is the artist’s maturity and the Vadehra Art Gallery’s offering of these works at Rs 30-36 lakh. WHO better to introduce a price correction and leave money on the table for the collectors than one of the country’s respected contemporary artists.

This is one the best pricing decisions in a market full of greed and speculation. The credit for taking a bold decision to mark down values for really significant works must be given both to Dodiya and his gallery. Sources say he is already sold out — a month before its opening day — because it offers both quality and value. In the last few months, I’ve seen numerous shows open where canvases have been illogically priced, and to anyone who disputed the logic, the standard answer was that you need to appreciate the aesthetics and not focus only on prices. We saw mid-tier contemporary artists out of tune with reality and had top galleries justifying values in 2009 as being the same as in 2007, which was illogical because in 2007, the Indian economy was on an overdrive. On a different note, the Saffronart auction catalogue for March is now online, and you can make out that the contemporary art market is recovering fast, with a much better variety available for buying this time. My pick of the lot in the contemporary space is the stunning T.V. Santhosh canvas. The whole of 2009 did not see any of his recent works being consigned and this is estimated at Rs 30-40 lakh.

I like the fact that the estimates for most of the works are in line and Saffronart has done a good job in keeping them low. I can sense a recovery for the contemporary art market but would advise you all to be careful. Remember the rule: Buy only what you like and if you have decided that you need to own a particular work, do not get carried away. And do your research on the pricing.

Cheers

Kapil Chopra is Senior Vice President of Oberoi Hotels & Resorts.He writes a blog on collecting and investing in Indian Contemporary Art at www.indianartinvest.blogspot.com.He also writes for The Telegraph newspaper in the Sunday magazine " Graphiti" every fortnight. In Delhi, he writes for "The Mail Today " newspaper and "First City" magazine.

The Pakistan Palette !

2010-02-09T20:25:00.011+05:30

This is my article on The Pakistan Contemporary Art Show at Devi Art Foundation which appeared in the Sunday magazine "Graphiti" of The Telegraph Newspaper which has a print run of 0.5 million copies. Comments are welcome!

The art scene is back at its vibrant best! Week after week there are new shows and one of the season’s best has been assembled by Anupam Poddar at the Devi Art Foundation.

Poddar’s passion as a collector is well known but his initiative in mounting a show of his collection of Pakistan Contemporary Art gives viewers a chance to see new art from our neighbour that’s innovative and absorbing. I was also impressed with his choice of curator, Rashid Rana, one of Pakistan’s foremost contemporary artists best known for his Red Carpet & Veil series — tiny images of an abattoir forming a red carpet and pornographic images in the shape of a veil.

The exhibition of 45 artists, culled from the vast collection of Anupam and Lekha Poddar, is aptly titled Resemble Reassemble. It showcases Experimental Art rather than the miniature intricate work we associate with Pakistani art. The art which spans the past decade is fresh and for a country which has issues with travel visas and limited interactions with other countries due to security issues, strongly contemporary. It’s art with which you instantly connect and the satire, in fact, is sometimes too much in your face. It’s also refreshingly without the hype and speculation of Indian Contemporary Art.

And the icing on the cake — for me — is the show’s staging at the Devi Art Foundation in Gurgaon, a stunning museum with lots of open spaces and excellent ceiling heights where you revel in the experience of soaking in the works. I was quite impressed with the earlier works of Ayaz Jokhio, one of the participants in the recently concluded Asia Pacific Triennale in Brisbane which also had Subodh Gupta and Thukral & Tagra from India. The show featured his works from 2005 and if I look at his works today, they’ve changed quite a lot, but even in 2005 you can feel the intensity of his style.

So here are my top three picks. Imran Ahmed Khan in this installation Implode 1 has various parts of an AK 47 rifle suspended with surgical medical instruments all hanging from the ceiling in a spectacular visual display. According to him, weapons and surgical instruments are related. Both penetrate human flesh, one to kill, the other to cure, both are handled by human figures and in most cases draw blood. This was a haunting image and executed beautifully.

Implode 1 by Imran Ahmed Khan

In the second work, Amber Hammad gets herself into the photograph titled Maryam, the Arabic name for Mary. It recreates the Mother Mary & Child genre that has inspired many paintings and sculptures around the world. She recreates this image in front of traditional Islamic architecture and the photograph has a box of diapers and a book on erotic art next to it. I admired the way the artist conveyed the various dimensions of a woman’s life in an Islamic environment. It’s a subtle yet defining work with a touch of humour in it.

Amber Hammad’s Maryam

And of course, no commentary on Pakistan Contemporary Art can still be complete without some miniature work in it. Nusra Latif Qureshi has lived in Australia for many years and in this work, titled Rainbird, For What Place Are You Crying?, maybe the lovers pointing to some distant location in the work is her own longing for her country –— a yearning shared by all Diaspora artists. Her work, an excellent fusion of miniature art with an exploration of personal, social and political histories, is stunning. Take note specially of her deft use of striking colours and the subtle intricacies inspired by the traditional miniature work.

Rainbird, For What Place Are You Crying? by Nusra Latif Qureshi

I have also been collecting Pakistan Contemporary Art for the last two years and have been impressed with the quality of the work. The values are also quite reasonable especially for the quality of work available. It’s not difficult to get a nice work from a younger contemporary artist for around Rs 50,000 and even experienced contemporary artists are all available in the Rs 2 lakh to Rs 4 lakh range. Some of the galleries showing such cutting edge Pakistan Contemporary Art are Green Cardamom in London and Grey Noise in Lahore.

So if you are looking for art which is a commentary on the times in which we live, start looking at Pakistan Contemporary Art seriously. There’s some great art across the border just waiting to be collected! And if you are ever in the vicinity also do take a trip down to Gurgaon as the show stays open till May 10.

Kapil Chopra is Senior Vice President of Oberoi Hotels & Resorts.He writes a blog on collecting and investing in Indian Contemporary Art at www.indianartinvest.blogspot.com.He also writes for The Telegraph newspaper in the Sunday magazine " Graphiti" every fortnight. In Delhi, he writes for "The Mail Today " newspaper and "First City" magazine.

Rules of Buying Art after a Difficult Year !

2010-01-24T09:57:00.015+05:30

This is my new monthly column in "Mail Today" newspaper on the Art Market. Mail Today from the India Today group is one of the leading newspapers in New Delhi and the National Capital Region.

Enjoy !

The year 2009 started on a difficult note for Indian Contemporary Art but it looks poised for a recovery in 2010, though it is still early days. Last year saw the prices commanded by most Indian contemporary masters sink to all- time lows with some values dropping by more than 75 per cent from their peak.

The Art Tactic Confidence Index sank to a low of 19 in March, but it had recovered to 46 in November 2009 — in plain terms it means that 46 per cent of the collectors would buy contemporary art now, compared with 19 per cent in March. The improvement, as you can see, is relative and there are hardly any buyers for works over Rs 10 lakh.

In the two years before 2009, values had become unsustainable and some of that trend continues till this day. Most of the shows opening in Delhi in the last two months had disappointing sales; only 20 per cent of the works got sold — so much for the ‘ recovery’! All that you hear today is good news, such as a Manjit Bawa selling at Rs 1.6 crore, which is close to a new record, but not that most of the top contemporary artists were struggling at the auctions. So please discount the statements emanating from the galleries that the market is booming and collectors are buying.

What does one do in 2010? Well, you must know that the values are still high and gallery prices are what they used to be at the time of the boom — maybe 10 per cent lower. If you buy at these prices, you’ll end up with a hole in your pocket. So here are some of the rules for you to follow — buy what you really like and would love to hang on the wall; go for the younger contemporary artists with reputed addresses such as Nature Morte, Gallery Chemould, Sakshi Art Gallery, Guild Art Gallery, Project 88 and Latitude 28. The prices should ideally be lower than Rs 2 lakh, but even then, research the artists before collecting their work. Consult other collectors if you believe your favourite artist has potential to grow in the future.

In the top- end contemporary space, it may be prudent for you to wait and watch. In the year gone by, I have bought T. V. Santhosh because he was able to hold his prices even at the peak of recession. The other is Seher Shah, who is still up and coming, but the values are good. All the others are younger artists with prominent galleries — like Sajjad Ahmed, Prajjwal Choudhary, Shreyas Karle and Siddartha Kararwal, whose work is priced between Rs 50,000 and Rs 2 lakh. At the upper end of the spectrum, the only artist I would buy at reasonable valuations is N. S. Harsha, who’s not prolific but is very talented.

Game Theory by T.V. Santosh

The year 2009 also saw over 600 investors in the Osian’s art fund struggling to get their capital back. My response is that people who invest in a fund that promises to give higher than bank returns are courting a risk.

If people lose money because they weren’t diligent enough, or because they became passive investors after reading art world headlines, then it was bound to happen. The Indian art market does not have a big enough base of collectors to support an art fund, so wait for the market to really grow before you lose your money in such ventures. Art bought for financial returns can be risky because of the lack of pricing transparency and also due to the fact that it isn’t liquid like other assets.

I would rather enjoy the process of buying art, hang some great canvases on the wall, make sure I apply the principles of intelligent buying to protect my capital and spend time reading on how to buy art and not invest in art funds. Spend time on the World Wide Web, visit shows at the best galleries in the cities, read blogs, and you are on your way to becoming a well- informed art collector!

Kapil Chopra is Senior Vice President of Oberoi Hotels & Resorts.He writes a blog on collecting and investing in Indian Contemporary Art at www.indianartinvest.blogspot.com.He also writes for The Telegraph newspaper in the Sunday magazine " Graphiti" every fortnight. In Delhi, he writes for "The Mail Today " newspaper and "First City" magazine.

The Crash and After !

2010-01-11T08:56:00.010+05:30

Dear Friends,

This is the article published in "Graphiti" the Sunday magazine of The Telegraph newspaper on the 3rd of January giving my views on the year gone by and the road ahead !

It’s been a turbulent year for all asset classes including art but it’s thankfully drawing to a close on a better note than it started. However, it’s left behind some hefty damage — especially at the speculative end. What are the relevant lessons of the past year for Indian Contemporary Art — how can one build a portfolio that holds its value during rough weather?

We should note right away that the market for the modern artists — especially Gaitonde, Souza, Husain, Raza and a real gem whom we lost this year, Tyeb Mehta — remains strong but even among those art titans there are some pretty steep price variations. What this difficult year highlighted was the importance of quality and not just names. So if you’re lucky enough to possess a Souza work from the late ’50s to the early ’60s, the price for a 2ft by 3ft canvas now could be Rs 75 lakh, but if you have a Souza work from the late ’80s, within the same size range, the price could be just Rs 20 lakh.

Landscape with Houses and Lake by F.N. Souza

In the contemporary space, the speculative side of the market has taken the biggest hit. There had been a lot of froth in the market and that has been pretty roundly removed. All the key stakeholders — galleries, artists and collectors — were caught up in the tide of ever rising values and when the bad times struck, prices crashed by as much as 75 per cent.

A lot of artists, even those who had been bracketed in the top tier, suddenly found they weren’t selling at all when confidence troughed in March. One of the most flamboyant art galleries in the last four years, Bodhi Art Gallery, which had presences in Delhi, Mumbai, Singapore, New York and Berlin, finally closed down all its locations this year under the weight of mounting costs as their roster of artists slumped from the lofty valuations they’d enjoyed just a year earlier.

Atul Dodiya’s Sleeping with the Stars

I feel the fall of Bodhi Art Gallery, which some rivals had regarded as too commercial, has not been a good thing for the world of Indian contemporary art. Bodhi was a leader in redefining some of the norms on presenting and displaying art, publishing arguably the best catalogues with each show and also taking Indian contemporary art to an international collector base.

It also had some of the best sites, welcoming and well-informed gallery staff and a really conducive environment for viewing art. But the scale and magnitude of the operation built on a group of artists who’d started to believe the hype was too much and finally led to the demise of what was, at one point of time, India’s most powerful contemporary art gallery. It was built on a model of investment and financial returns and though art is a financial asset anyone who looks at it merely through a commercial prism is bound to fail.

And there is a lesson in the recently concluded Christies’ Hong Kong sale of contemporary art. Its price estimates were completely out of whack with market realities. So it was not surprising to see that most of the works did not even manage a decent bid.

So what ultimately is the takeaway for collectors and galleries from these cautionary tales? In the good times, don’t get carried away by hype. It’s important to note that what keeps its value is quality — but only at the right price. Still even in these difficult times, a 1979 work by Jogen Choudhary was able to smash all records in the Sotheby’s auction to breach the Rs 2 crore mark due its incomparable quality.

All in the Landscape by Probir Gupta

Now, though, the situation is looking rosier for the art world. Art Tactic, an art research firm which tracks confidence in Indian contemporary art, has seen its confidence index recover to 46 from 19. This means that 46 per cent of the collector community surveyed will buy contemporary art at current valuations — perhaps not as good a figure as one would like but still a lot better than the 19 per cent registered earlier when times were tougher. Another pointer to improving sentiment is the recently concluded Saffron Art auction in which 62 per cent of its art works sold above the higher estimate — underscoring that the market is recovering its poise.

Looking ahead to the first quarter of 2010, one of the most interesting events is a show by cutting edge British collector Charles Saatchi at his Saatchi Art Gallery in London. The show, aptly titled “The Empire Strikes Back,” will put India — and Pakistan — in the global contemporary art spotlight once again, something which had happened with Arco Madrid last February where India was the focus country. But the timing of Saatchi’s exhibition is better in the context of the recovery in global markets than the Madrid show.

Saatchi’s show, which opens on 29 January, promises to be really eye-catching. The roughly 26 artists featured include a mix of the top names in the Indian and Pakistan contemporary art space and also some new names you may not even have heard of. Some of the younger artists showing are Sakshi Gupta, T. Venkanna, Kriti Arora, Rajesh Ram and Rajan Krishnan among others. You may also want to take a peek at some of the research Saatchi has put up for this show, which you can view at www.saatchi-gallery.co.uk.

Here at home keep an eye out locally for well-known photographer Rashid Rana’s show, curating at the Devi Art Foundation in Gurgaon starting January 16. This exhibit, focusing on the journey of Pakistani contemporary art, should be quite interesting, considering the passion of Anupam Poddar and the pioneering work he has done in the world of collecting Pakistani art.

Now in the meantime, let me wish you all a Happy New Year and a good time collecting in 2010.

Kapil Chopra is Senior Vice President of Oberoi Hotels & Resorts.He writes a blog on collecting and investing in Indian Contemporary Art at www.indianartinvest.blogspot.com.He also writes for The Telegraph newspaper in the Sunday magazine " Graphiti" every fortnight. In Delhi, he writes for "The Mail Today " newspaper and "First City" magazine.

Confessions of a Collector !

2009-12-20T20:20:00.015+05:30

Let me start with a true story on the importance of collectors in the Indian contemporary space. I was invited by my very good friend Swapan Seth, who is maybe the most prolific collector of contemporary art in this country today to view a panel discussion that he was part of. This discussion was on Video Art at Gallery Espace, a gallery I think has done a wonderful job with a lot of art initiatives including the one on promoting video art and even the recent exhibition. Swapan was part of a panel and the discussion started at 6 PM in the evening, there were some of the poster boys & girls of Indian Contemporary Art curators and critics on the panel with him.

I got up at 7.30 PM finally because I realised that most of the people on the panel just loved their own voice and was bored to death ( except 1 speaker who was really good). Swapan finally got a chance 15 minutes later after hearing others for a good 1 hour 45 minutes !, now this is a collector who is keeping Video art alive and one of the most appreciative collectors for young artists. I asked some people who stayed back and they loved the last part only !

This is a clear example of how the art world needs to change with the focus on collectors.Galleries and curators who will not adapt will just stand on the wayside as people move on. I will tell you what I love about Peter Nagy, Arvind Vijaymohan and Bhavna Kakar in New Delhi, they are interesting people with a view, they all are involved in the sales process but are not boring or full of themselves.

Let me also share a view that I hear about buying and selling of artworks. Meet any top artist represented by a top art gallery in India, now they only sell to serious collectors and please do not put the works in auction, my retort is why not ?

Answer :Well, because old collectors loved their art and never sold the works, they were genuine lovers of art.

Question : Really, how much did they pay for the works at that time ? 1 Lac for a Hussain ? ! Talk about paying 25 lacs for the work of a top contemporary artist and you will get the answer.

If a collector is taking financial risk because he loves your work, then he has the right to buy and sell, when Charles Saatchi says that, very few people have a problem but otherwise I hear this all the time. Now, I am not talking about flipping a work, I am against that or even being in the art world to just flip will get you nowhere but look at the costs of collecting today. What is the harm in consigning works to an auction to raise further funds so you can collect more ?

These are uncomfortable questions, ethics are sometimes meant for collectors only, in 2 specific cases this year and I am talking about galleries which are in the top 5 galleries in this country, the prices were revised downwards by 40 % in 24 hours of the show opening ! So much so for the love and appreciation of art.

So what did I buy this year ? Only what I absolutely loved ! ( Rule No.1 ) and also at the right value ( Rule No.2 ).

A Lovely 10 ft by 6 ft Seher Shah shown at Armory Show in New York and then being shown at the current solo in Nature Morte

A triptych by Prajwal Choudhary, the image is posted in the earlier posts on this blog at http://www.indianartinvest.blogspot.com/ from Bhavna Kakar & Aparajita Jain's lovely show at the peak of the recession, great work at a fantastic value

A Sajjad Ahmed photography work from the same show, the value that he asked was ridiculous to say the least, till the gallery got him to understand some basics of pricing!

An absolute beauty of an installation by a young artist called Sidhartha Karawal called "My Generation is Silent" again featured on this blog from Project 88

Sarnath Banerjee's satirical graphic works, a set of 4 works on property dealers, really fantastic from Project 88

TV Santhosh's "Game Theory", absolutely brilliant work on canvas ( I think his canvas works are to die for !) from Guild Art Gallery

Shreyas Karle, a collection of 15 paperworks which I am yet to recieve ! from Guild Art Gallery

What did I sell ?

Arunkumar H G, the Nandi bull, lovely work but had to sell it to raise money.

Which Artists will I sell or not buy this year ?

I think I will avoid all middle rung contemporary artists this year, so if you have the money, please go ahead and buy

Thukral & Tagra
TV Santhosh ( Only Canvas)
Jitish Kallat ( Only Canvas)
N S Harsha
Mithu Sen ( Large substantial works only)
Seher Shah ( Large works only)
Jagannath Panda ( Large works, price needs to be right)

I think both Bharti Kher & Subodh Gupta are in a different league due to their association with Hauser & Wirth but collectors have lost money and hence considering my limited funds and risk aversion, I would stay away for now. Although, I would buy a great Subodh installation any day but considering the prices would need to be really lucky on the value front.

Now, for everyone else who is over the 2 lacs mark just research more and below the 2 lac mark, if you love the work just buy it. Simple rules for collecting art. Over 2 lacs, needs to be justified, I loved Aditya Pande & George Martin at 2-4 lacs and would have happily sold them at 8-10 lacs without batting an eyelid. The Value perspective needs to kick in especially in the environment today, otherwise you are being taken for a ride. Now collectors I know were buying them at 10 lacs, which according to was just pure speculation because there was no way that they could command such prices logically. Would I buy both of them at more reasonable valuations, absolutely yes!

So what about all the wonderful artists over 2 lacs, well just watch if they are going anywhere, if you love the work , then please keep it otherwise just consign to an auction, no harm with that. I have 3 artists I have mentioned on this blog earlier who have now moved to my sell list for this year as I believe they are doing nothing exciting and have reached a value threshold. So I need to sell to sustain my collecting frenzy!

I would rather buy a Sajjad Ahmed, Prajwal Choudhary & Sidhartha Karwal for under 2 lacs or less and enjoy my art, as all of them have the potential to make it big.

As for the 20 artists, who are sitting at 8-10 lacs price levels, ask them for the justification on their pricing and do your research, most of them would be in my avoid category.

Some very good art shows opened in Delhi in November & December, but most of them have been commercial disasters with illogical pricing and negligible sales. Pretty much like the Christie's auction which failed miserably as the estimates were too high, Saffronart scored with the right pricing and had better results with in line estimates.

Thank you for your support, encouragement and affection for making this the most widely read and searched blog on Indian contemporary art ( I am not saying this, Google is saying this !, over 1.2 lac search results for this blog!)

I will just try to be as frank and honest as I can be........

Merry Christmas and have a great New Year ! Happy Collecting !

Cheers

Kapil

Kapil Chopra is Senior Vice President of Oberoi Hotels & Resorts.He writes a blog on collecting and investing in Indian Contemporary Art at www.indianartinvest.blogspot.com.He also writes for The Telegraph newspaper in the Sunday magazine " Graphiti" every fortnight. In Delhi, he has written for "The Mail Today " newspaper and "First City" magazine.

Terror on Canvas

2009-12-16T22:40:00.009+05:30

The recent article on T V Santhosh that I wrote in "Graphiti", the Sunday magazine of The Telegraph newspaper reaching over a million readers...........

This week I’ve chosen to zoom in and look at one artist in the Contemporary art space — T.V. Santhosh. He’s interesting for a number of reasons but I’d have to say one of the key ones is that he’s one of the few artists to have focused on the ever-challenging relationship between India and Pakistan.

Santhosh, who has shown at many of the important global art fairs like Art Basel in Switzerland and Armory in New York among others, started focusing on imagery and the aftermath of terrorism much before any other artist in this country began using it as a visual language. He’s really been way out in front on this difficult subject.

Santhosh, who picked up his Bachelor’s degree in fine art from Santiniketan and followed it up with a Master’s in sculpture — again from Baroda’s Faculty of Fine Arts, has also got an extremely distinctive style. He paints in vibrant hues — electric green, neon yellow and shocking orange. In fact, his bold use of colour and technique is so individual that once you see one of his works, you’ll instantly recognise them in any other show.

(From top) A watercolour by the artist; An untitled work by Santhosh; Game theory by Santhosh

The danger sometimes with artists focusing on such volatile topics like terrorism is that too much negativity can creep in. Also viewers can really get tired of looking at such imagery. But these precisely are areas where this Mumbai-based artist who’s from Kerala originally is able to score. There’s no tedium. His work looks visually arresting on the wall, helped by the subtlety of expression in his works so each one stands out. His images depict chaos and paranoia relating to media coverage of contemporary events and his exploration demonstrates a reality on the verge of explosion.

Another interesting aspect about Santhosh — and it’s something I profoundly wish other top Contemporary artists would emulate — is that he’s not overly prolific. So in a year, you can expect him to produce a maximum of eight to 10 canvas works. And because he’s not churning out innumerable works, this establishes room for more demand for his works by both a good Indian collector base and the international collector fraternity.

His sculptures and installations are also quite haunting and unique but I’d have to say in terms of international recognition, they don’t even come close to his fluorescent canvas works with their deeply saturated colours and fluid edges.

On the market front, his prices have displayed an enviable sticking power — a resilience which is quite unusual in the light of the downturn in most art values. In fact, Santhosh is the only Contemporary artist whose work in the period from September 2008 to now has not gone below his primary value — in his case Rs 25 lakh for a 6ft X 4ft work.

The lowest price one of his canvases recorded in the recession was around Rs 27 lakh in the Saffronart auction last December. After that no recent canvas works have featured in any auction. This clearly demonstrated that collectors were not willing to consign any good quality works to auctions and were happy holding the work. What got offered in most of the sales were his earlier works that did not compare to the visual language he’s been using in the last three years. But what’s remarkable is that even these older works sold well above their primary prices (the gallery price).

For collectors, the good thing that his gallery, Guild Art Gallery, has done is to keep his primary prices quite attractive — for a change the primary prices are much lower than auction values.

His latest solo show in New York opened on October 14 at the well known Jack Shainman Gallery and initial reports suggested that four out of the five canvas works were already sold a week before the exhibition opened for public viewing. The primary prices were revised upward to Rs 40 lakh, which is steep but in his case, demand for his works have always outstripped supply even in recessionary times. These financial details are important because these values are high and it’s important that due diligence is exercised even if you might fall in love with one of his works.

Now, coming to a question that I have been asked quite often: how about his watercolour works that are available for a fairly affordable Rs 3 lakh to Rs 4 lakh? Well, I was never a fan of his watercolour works but I must admit that the quality of his watercolour works has gone up tremendously in the last year or so. Generally my answer would be a rule that’s critical to buying art: “Buy what you like and buy the best, look for works which are significant” and those without a doubt are his unforgettable canvas works. But as this could be a bit of a stretch, I would be tempted to collect one of his watercolour works like the one shown here (in picture) just for the brilliance of expression.

Kapil Chopra is Senior Vice President of Oberoi Hotels & Resorts.He writes a blog on collecting and investing in Indian Contemporary Art at www.indianartinvest.blogspot.com.He also writes for The Telegraph newspaper in the Sunday magazine " Graphiti" every fortnight. In Delhi, he has written for "The Mail Today " newspaper and "First City" magazine.

Photo Finish - Article Published in The Telegraph

2009-11-27T22:28:00.011+05:30

The latest article published in The Telegraph newspaper Sunday magazine " Graphiti" on contemporary photography for all readers of this blog. Be glued onto the upcoming Saffronart auction for market trends on the 9th and 10th of December and before that Christie's Asian Art sale on the 30th of November........

A leading Indian photographer was once asked why people should pay high prices for photographic works considering that anyone could click a pretty picture. His matter-of-fact retort was: “Everyone can paint so why pay for a good painting.”

But the thought behind the question illustrates one reason why photography is not top-of-mind even for veteran collectors.

Internationally you have photographers like Richard Prince whose photographs can cost between Rs 2.5 crore and Rs 3 crore. Closer home there’s Rashid Rana with his iconic Veil series which is a collection of hundreds of pornographic images that form a veil. Also, his Red Carpet series is a collection again of hundreds of images of an abattoir that make a red carpet. Some of his works can sometimes cost almost Rs 2 crore a piece.

An untitled work by Richard Prince

Still, with a few exceptions, most people are still uncomfortable about collecting photography. Perhaps it’s time to change our pre-conceived ideas and open our minds to the wonderful world of top-class photography.

It’s important to divide the world of photography into two distinct parts. There is, on one hand, documentary photography which captures images of scenic landscapes, city life, everyday life and situations. Then, there’s message-based photography in which a photograph conveys a message or is a satire on our times, thinking or attitudes.

Artist Shilpa Gupta is perhaps the best example in the message-based category. She had people carrying bags wrapped in white canvas with the words “There is no explosive here” printed on them. She then photographed these people in different situations like at a metro station or getting out of a car in London. This was a clear satire on how everyone after the London metro blasts carrying a bag was treated with suspicion.

No one has captured the Indian scenario — whether it’s the Taj Mahal or just a beautiful landscape — better than the acclaimed photographer Raghu Rai. One of his medium-sized prints could cost you close to Rs 3 lakh, but the effect is magical. Then, there’s Dayanita Singh, who captures the moment and brings us the beauty of everyday life and also the magical Prabuddha Dasgupta. If you wish to see any of these works, just do a search in Google Images.

Raghu Rai's Dust

Ajay Rajgarhia runs a contemporary photography gallery Wonderwall and he recently held an exhibition of 31 photographers. I figured that the sheer number of photographers on display was a good reason to go — after all you don’t often get the opportunity to see the works of 31 lensmen under one roof.

Men at Work by Ajay Rajgarhia

I was surprised pleasantly by the quality of the works and felt that this was one of the better shows I had been to this year. The photographs that captured everything from landscapes to a dump for old scooters were all engaging, and I immediately felt the urge to collect that I only get when I see quality.

The other thing which was commendable was that most of the works were priced between Rs 12,000 to Rs 40,000 and framed and ready to be hung in your home. This is the kind of initiative that’s needed to make people take up collecting photography seriously. The other thing which appealed to me was that there was something for all tastes and all spaces.

My two favourite works from the show were a nice large work by Rajgarhia, who is himself a photographer, and has opened Wonderwall to promote contemporary photography. The picture titled Men at Work showed a group of men working at a site. I loved the scale and the size of the work (24in x 75in).

The other work I liked was a 22in x 34in photograph titled Old Scooters —Jodhpur, by Ramona Singh who went on a trip to Jaisalmer but, for some reason, couldn’t find anything to shoot. Then, she travelled to Jodhpur and while walking through the city’s back lanes came across a scooter dump. I just loved the treatment and the visual appeal of this work.

Old Scooters — Jodhpur by Ramona Singh

So you if you want to see the holy men of Varanasi or get a new angle on the Jama Masjid, do take a look at the photographs available. It will be there for your viewing pleasure and it won’t burn too big a hole in your pocket. What’s more, as prices are quite low at the moment, it will definitely appreciate in value — but that’s just a bonus with a thing of beauty.

Kapil Chopra is Senior Vice President of Oberoi Hotels & Resorts.He writes a blog on collecting and investing in Indian Contemporary art at www.indianartinvest.blogspot.com.He also writes for The Telegraph newspaper in the Sunday magazine " Graphiti" every fortnight. In Delhi, he has written for "The Mail Today " newspaper and "First City" magazine.

Asian Hues

2009-11-18T08:27:00.016+05:30

Well, My experience at ARTSingapore and views on the art market in Asia shared for the benefit of the readers of this blog. This article was published in "Graphiti" the Sunday magazine of The Telegraph Newspaper with a readership of close to a million readers. Your views as always are most welcome !

Hot on the heels of the Indian Art Summit has come ARTSingapore in the island city. ARTSingapore is a Contemporary art fair, which has been around since 2000. It’s a genuine art initiative for true art fans unlike some fairs which have started up in the past few years that aim merely to exploit rising values of Contemporary art.

Chen Shen Po, director of this fair and a real art lover, brought together quite a spectacular display of works. What really caught my eye was the selection of Korean Contemporary art. The Korean art space has evolved in a very sophisticated manner and some of the artists are brilliant.

Dream of Maewha by Korea’s Hong Kyung Tack; (below) Korean artist Yoon Byung Rock’s Autumn’s Fragrance

Normally, given the importance of China, it’s tough for artists from other Asian countries to generate a lot of interest. But the Korean artists grabbed a great deal of deserved attention. I loved the work of Hong Kyung Tack shown by Seoul-based CAIS Gallery that falls into the new genre of eye-catching patterned art with bright motifs.

Kim Dong Yoo, represented by Leehwaik Gallery, also had a spectacular display with a large 8ft x 6ft work with small miniature images of legendary Hollywood beauty Audrey Hepburn coming together to form a large image of Hepburn again. The different shades and subtle strokes were a delight to behold. Kim’s works of this size generally fetch around Rs 75 lakh at big auctions as he’s a popular, established artist.

Audrey Hepburn vs Audrey Hepburn by Korean artist Kim Dong Yoo

Also what was particularly rivetting was a work by Yoon Byung Rock, represented by Simyo Gallery from Seoul, in which I felt the apples were literally about to fall off the canvas.

I was also quite impressed with how Indonesian Contemporary art is shaping up. The works are good and the prices for large works were under Rs 2 lakh — a very reasonable sum given the quality.

At the booth of SIGIarts, an Indonesian gallery, I was also taken with a work by Ketut Moniarta and his innovative take on recycling. Indonesia is clearly bustling with ideas and a lot of new galleries are being set up which shows that their market is starting to take off.

Netto by Ketut Moniarta of Indonesia

I must make a point about sculpture and installations I saw at the fair. The finishing and quality were excellent. (Note to Contemporary Indian artists — especially the younger ones: this is something you need to work on).

There were also a slew of informative talks with Low Sze Wee, deputy director of the National Art Gallery. He chaired a panel on Singapore’s top artist, Cheong Soo Pieng, and his works focusing on the Malay lady and his blending of East and West that’s made him a pioneering artist of his generation. There was a talk on photography where internationally acclaimed Chris Yap chaired a discussion on how the artistic frontiers of photography keep being pushed out.

There was also a presentation on Indian Contemporary Art, The Road Ahead that I presented and the discussion revolved around India’s top Contemporary artists like Subodh Gupta, N.S. Harsha and the average 74 per cent slide in prices in the Indian Contemporary art market from last year.

I also attended a thought-provoking group conversation with Bali-based Swiss artist Richard Winkler based on his unique distinctive depiction of Balinese women on large canvas formats that was a fair highlight. He had 10 large works, all priced at Rs 50 lakh and I noted eight had already been sold on the penultimate day.

From an organisational standpoint, as a first-time fair visitor, what struck one was the way it all seamlessly came together. The advantage in Singapore is the infrastructure. The Suntec City convention is expertly designed and easy to get around which made a huge difference to the fair’s look and feel. Also, crowd management was excellent and the booths were generously spaced so people could get a long, expansive view of the art.

What, though, I must say was truly regrettable was that last year there were eight Indian galleries at the show and this year there were none. I realise some galleries feel a need to tighten belts in these straitened times. But it’s coming at the price of sacrificing the chance to attract new collectors and spread the reach of Indian Contemporary art. It’s a short-term approach.

The fair was packed and on Saturday afternoon, I saw works all over the fair sporting red dots. Some galleries had sold out completely — even the extra works they’d brought in a day before the fair ended were gone. The lack of Indian galleries really was a lost opportunity for Indian Contemporary art whose artists should have been showcased in the heart of Asia.

Splashed in Red - September Auction Analysis for Indian Contemporary Art

2009-10-25T17:23:00.018+05:30

Here is the article published in "The Telegraph" posted here for the International readers of this blog....... Check out the auction analysis with help from Art Tactic and figure out if there is really a recovery ........

You could say that the ‘Indian art season’ has kicked off. In September, there were three major auctions — Saffronart, Sotheby’s and Christie’s — and the results are a pointer to which way the art world will be headed in coming months.

So what can we look forward to? The modern art market looks strong — but the same can’t be said for Contemporary art.

The star of the season so far is one of the old masters, Tyeb Mehta. Even in this market , he notched up Rs 6.4 crore for one of the Mahishasura canvases.

He wasn’t the only one to make a splash. A rare but good-sized 57in x 92in Jagdish Swaminadhan went for close to Rs 2.75 crore at the Christie’s auction. This really goes to show that — as always — there are buyers willing to pay a premium over market prices and even market conditions for good quality art.

At the Sotheby’s auction, I was impressed by the nice Rs 3 crore figure for a V.S. Gaitonde canvas. Now, Gaitonde was one of the least prolific artists of his times and very few works are available. This was a 65in x 40in work and it’s typical of the abstract work he was known for.

This untitled Manjit Bawa work fetched a stunning Rs 1.27 crore at the Saffronart auction

In the Saffronart auction nearer home, both Akbar Padamsee with a value of close to Rs 1.87 crore and a stunning Manjit Bawa at Rs 1.27 crore were standout performers.

Yes, the top lots did do well. And this has lent weight to those who argue that the Modern art market has recovered.

But let me give you an interesting set of statistics: There were a total of 161 lots of Modern art at these three auctions and out of these, 107 — or close to 70 per cent — sold at the lower end of the estimate or did not sell. So the recovery was mainly in exceptional works of Tyeb Mehta, MF Hussain, S. H. Raza, F. N. Souza and Gaitonde.

Tyeb Mehta notched up Rs 6.4 crore for this Mahishasura canvas

Meanwhile, the Contemporary art scene was disappointing to say the least — and the picture looks even bleaker if you compare it to the Contemporary art sales last September.

Both Modern and Contemporary art prices have fallen this year; As the second graph shows, 81 per cent of the contemporary lots are selling at the lower end of the estimate or failing to sell

Last year, at the three September auctions, Contemporary art worth Rs 58 crore was sold. This year that figure fell to a pitiful Rs 4.5 crores — at all three auctions combined. That includes a very surprising performance of close to Rs 1.8 crore for a lovely Jitish Kallat work, Dawn Chorus — 7. Kallat has, over the last one year, failed to sell at a number of auctions, so this new sale record was a pleasant surprise.

With this exception, I didn’t see one result in the entire Contemporary space that merited. In fact, the sad truth is none of the three auctions had much quality work. The reason: collectors aren’t dispatching their best works to auctions because they fear the works will fetch less than their purchase price.

Looking through the sales figures drills home the fact how even seasoned collectors get carried away during good times when there’s too much money chasing art which isn’t always the best quality.

During the boom Atul Dodiya held a famous water colour show with some 40 of his works on display at Bodhi Art gallery in Mumbai. Each work was on sale, at the time, for about Rs 20 lakh — there weren’t many buyers at that price even then. But two of the same works came up for sale at Sotheby’s. They sold finally for about Rs 6 lakh.

The same phenomenon has struck many other collectors who have lost close to 70 per cent of their buying price. Art should be bought because you like the work and you relate to the work and it strikes an instant chord. Art bought for investment will never yield the right returns. Also, the price point is the key and you can burn a deep hole in your pocket if you get carried away and don’t do your research.

Similarly, a Surendran Nair canvas failed to sell in the second consecutive Saffronart auction despite decent estimates, showing there is no genuine collector demand for his canvas works at the current price points.

The ArtTactic Indian Auction Indicator for the Contemporary market is standing at 19. This implies 81 per cent of the contemporary lots are selling at the lower end of the estimate or failing to sell, indicating estimates could fall further before market equilibrium is attained.

Going ahead, I’d like to see the auction houses come up with better works. Let’s see some good significant works by artists like T.V. Santhosh, N.S. Harsha and Bharti Kher in the coming auctions. Let’s see some of the young artists who are doing cutting-edge work and being shown at some of the world’s important art fairs. I believe the next few months will be a great time to be buying exceptional art by some of the top Contemporary artists.

Views on the Art Market in Bloomberg TV Interview at ART Singapore

2009-10-21T22:34:00.010+05:30

Dear Friends,

Here is a link of my interview with Bloomberg TV at Art Singapore and views on the art market. I will also be putting my presentation ' Indian Contemporary Art - The Road Ahead" which was presented at Art Singapore for download in my next post as promised in my talk. I thank all those took out the time to attend the presentation at Art Singapore. Also, a note of thanks to Shen Po, the Director of ARTSingapore who gave me an opportunity to share my views and invited me for the talk to her lovely fair!

More on that with the presentation and exclusive images for the readers of this blog in my next post!

Cheers
Kapil Chopra

Conversation With Art Collector Kapil Chopra by Invitation at ARTSingapore

2009-10-04T07:31:00.007+05:30

In April 2009, the Art Tactic Confidence Indicator fell by 63 % from October 2008. Valuations in the contemporary space have dropped by close to 60 % from last year and are now near the bottom. Meet avid art collector Kapil Chopra, who will share with you some insights of his strategies and join him in this exciting presentation that will take you through the roller coaster ride of Indian Contemporary Art and also highlight the current and future stars of the Indian art world.

Known for his frank, unbiased and critical take on artists and valuations of artworks in his blog, http://www.indianartinvest.blogspot.com/, Kapil Chopra is a passionate art collector of Indian contemporary art. He also writes for publications such as "The Telegraph ", "Mail Today" both newspapers and “First City” magazine in New Delhi. As Senior Vice President of Oberoi Hotels & Resorts, he runs one of India's most spectacular hotels, Trident. Gurgaon, New Delhi National Region and is also opening Asia's most luxurious hotel, The Oberoi,Gurgaon, which will further set new benchmarks in hospitality.

A Broader Canvas - India Art Summit - Reflections

2009-09-20T07:26:00.014+05:30

Dear Friends,

Here is the latest article published in "Telegraph" newspaper for your reading pleasure!

The India Art Summit 2009 is over but memories of the event that drew some 40,000 visitors will linger for a long time to come. For a start, it must be said that this has been the first really successful art fair in India. There were over 55 galleries taking part including 18 international ones, which is a record. On show were works by the legendary Pablo Picasso and our own Mumbai-born Anish Kapoor, the sculptor well known for his large public works.

Top class international galleries like London’s Lisson and Arario from Beijing were also in attendance at the summit, which was spread over three sprawling halls at Delhi’s Pragati Maidan.

Visitors at the India Art Summit 2009

The art on display was in some cases exceptional, especially the Moderns. Both Delhi Art Gallery & Dhoomimal gallery exhibited very good collections of S.H. Raza and F.N. Souza. They had good quality works from all the important time periods on display.

By contrast, the Contemporary part of the Summit was a bit lacklustre. The major galleries in the Contemporary space did not put on show their ‘A’ list of artists. Instead they featured a lot of emerging artists and in some cases trotted out for the summit their second and third lists of artists who had not sold in recent shows.

Subodh Gupta’s Alibaba (2009, oil on canvas, 6.5ft x 12ft) at Trident,Gurgaon show

Nevertheless, the art summit was a laudable initiative even if some of the galleries insisted on thinking short-term, trying to flog art which was not the best they had to offer. This attitude will need to change in the future if the India Art Summit is to move up from here and be considered a truly serious international-level art fair.

Still I was impressed with the roster of opening and collateral events from Anant Art Gallery, Talwar Art Gallery, Gallery Seven Art and also a fantastic opening show at the Devi Foundation in Gurgaon. These events kept the fair busy and exciting.

Interestingly though, I was even more impressed with the international galleries. Arario, the powerful Beijing gallery, actually showed a big installation by L. N. Tallur, the promising Korea-based Indian artist and a large Jitish Kallat canvas. I also took to the fact that international galleries had really a very eclectic range of art to show. They seemed to be quite serious about their display and were looking at the lucrative potential of acquiring a new Indian collector base.

Turning to the speaker forum, the organisers had put together a very good mix of top artists, galleries, curators and collectors. Frank opinions were aired and there were some heated debates on the commercial aspects of art. Amrita Jhaveri, who runs an art advisory spoke about all the stakeholders in the circle of collecting art and the conflicts of interest that they sometimes have. Nitin Bhayana, one of India’s top collectors, shared his insights on how to build a great collection.

Bharti Kher’s The left-over DNA of a little mouse that the cat ate (2009, bindis on painted board, 72in x 96in) at Trident, Gurgaon show

Peter Nagy of Gallery Nature Morte was clear on his views from a gallery perspective and stressed he always was particular about the collector who was buying the work in order to promote genuine collectors and discourage speculators. Finally Anders Petterson from ArtTactic, the research think-tank, said stated categorically that, in his view, we are close to the bottom in both the Modern and Contemporary art space price-wise, according to his surveys in the Western world and even in the Indian space. He feels, however, that real recovery is still 12 months away for the Contemporary art space.

From the quality of Contemporary art presented, Nagy from Nature Morte saved the best for the last, with his show, Realisation of all Possibilities, at the Trident Gurgaon, which hosted the VIP Closing party (I must state an interest here as I was the show’s host).

The roster of artists were the best in the Indian Contemporary art space and the scale of the works was exceptional and not seen often with a 12ft x 6.5ft canvas by Subodh Gupta, a 8ft x 6ft canvas by Bharti Kher and a 6ft x 5ft work by Bharat Sikka.

Also there was a 12ft x 8ft canvas by Bari Kumar and a towering 14ft Transformer sculpture by Thukral & Tagra, and a 10ft x 5ft work by New York-based Seher Shah, which was also shown at The Armory Art Fair in New York. The scale and size of works from such important Contemporary artists in one show has not been seen in at least a year.

In the wake of the huge crowds that turned up for the summit, many commentators suggested that it showed the art market was on the road to recovery. I wouldn’t put big bets on that yet, but good quality art will always have buyers. So until you get that exceptional piece of art, hold your purse and don’t get carried away!

Kapil Chopra is Senior Vice President of Oberoi Hotels & Resorts.He writes a blog on collecting and investing in Indian Contemporary art at www.indianartinvest.blogspot.com.He also writes for The Telegraph newspaper in the sunday magazine " Graphiti" every fortnight. In Delhi, he has written for "The Mail Today " newspaper and "First City" magazine.

India Art Summit VIP Closing Party at Trident Gurgaon!

2009-09-11T18:40:00.014+05:30

Dear Friends,

Here are some images of the party that we at Trident,Gurgaon hosted with some spectacular art in the background. Just click on the images to have a look ! Great art, Lovely Louis Jadot wines and exquisite cuisine all for a great summit and a fitting finale!

Kapil Chopra is Senior Vice President of Oberoi Hotels & Resorts.He writes a blog on collecting and investing in Indian Contemporary art at www.indianartinvest.blogspot.com.He also writes for The Telegraph newspaper in the sunday magazine " Graphiti" every fortnight. In Delhi, he has written for "The Mail Today " newspaper and "First City" magazine.

Painted with Passion !

2009-08-23T23:10:00.035+05:30

Here we go, with the article published in "Graphiti" the Sunday magazine of The Telegraph news paper, published for the international readers of this blog. The Magazine has a print run of 0.5 million and a readership of close to 1 million. An update on the India Art Summit follows soon .......

Let me talk about some art initiatives and how some people in our country are trying their best to promote Contemporary art which will make the genre all the more sought after in years to come. A lot of private individuals are doing their bit by taking private initiatives to further the cause of Contemporary art.

Anupam Poddar took a fantastic initiative with the Devi Art Foundation by opening his collection with curated shows in the heart of Gurgaon to all. He has had students from Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) come and curate a show which involved the community in the art world.

On a much bigger scale, Rakhi Sarkar has an ambitious plan to create a 10-acre museum in Rajarhat called the Kolkata Museum of Modern Art. This is being designed by the acclaimed Swiss architectural duo Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron. The project, backed by passion, will contribute to the larger cause of promoting art.

We have a history of arts and culture but if you go back before 2004, most of the earlier artists hardly had any money and what kept them going was just a love for art.

As passion, creativity and talent sometimes get blurred in a haze of commercialisation, it is refreshing to see some galleries encourage new talent just fresh out of college. Bhavna Kakar from Latitude 28 has done a show for the graduating class of Vadodara earlier in the year which featured interesting works from Shreyas Karle, Sandip Pisalkar, Bhavin Mistry and others.

Rajesh Ram’s ‘Pothi padhe padhe jag mua pandit hua no koi/ Dhai akshar prem ke padhe so pandit hoye’

I was also very impressed with what Sree Goswami is doing at her gallery Project 88 in Mumbai. In these recession-hit times, I see the galleries shying away from doing shows to keep costs low. But Goswami went ahead and did First Look 2009. It was a brave decision, without an eye on the bottom line.

She showed five artists from the graduating class of Maharaja Sayaji Rao Art college at a time when even well-known Contemporary artists are finding it tough to sell their works.

I was curious and went and had a look. I was extremely impressed with an eloquent work by Sidhartha Karwal that carried the inscription, “My generation is silent! A sign of our times as we live sometimes not saying anything till it affects our life and not speaking out for what is right”. A strong message conveyed using an installation and canvas.

My Generation is Silent by Sidhartha Karwal

This is very different art with a limited following. Art on canvas or paper still is the first choice for most collectors. This whole installation was sold for Rs 50,000 which just about covered the cost of the work.

We need many galleries like this with a genuine love and enthusiasm for art to keep shows going, downturn or no downturn. Also accolades only come with risk which may be one of the reasons that Project 88 will be the only gallery representing India at the prestigious Contemporary “Frieze Art Fair” in London.

One of the most notable initiatives without any financial gain in the art space has been Indian Art News. It started out as a simple website which delivered art news directly to your e-mail. The site sent out daily information on what’s happening in the art world — and that too on a daily basis without a subscription charge. Deepak Shahdadpuri, who is an avid collector, then took it to a larger scale by revamping the website and creating a social network indianartnews.com.

Today it has over 2,500 members exchanging views on a minute-by-minute basis, discussion forums and event updates.

If I ever want to know the latest auction results at Sotheby’s or any of the other auction houses and even information on what the atmosphere in the auction room was like, then just checking the discussion forum is the easiest and the most reliable way.

It’s a great service to the Indian art world and it helps to educate both collectors and upcoming artists. I have met so many artists on the forum and actually connected with them on buying their works and even discussed the logic behind their art.

Next week we will take a look at the recently concluded India Art Summit, where the action has been thick and fast.

Kapil Chopra is Senior Vice President of Oberoi Hotels & Resorts. He writes a blog on collecting and investing in Indian Contemporary Art at http://www.indianartinvest.blogspot.com/. He also writes for "The Telegraph" newspaper Sunday magazine "Graphiti" every fortnight. In Delhi he has written for the "Mail Today" newspaper and "First City" Magazine.

Indian Contemporary Art - Market Perspective

2009-08-12T21:48:00.015+05:30

Well, it has been a quiet summer for the Indian art market and the market conditions have not helped much. Whenever I meet gallery owners, the only thing everyone is really praying for is recovery of the contemporary art market. Now, the approach to a recovery is not sincere enough and there have hardly been any initiatives that I have seen which will aid this process.

Now, we had a big show in Arco Madrid where a lot of Indian galleries did participate but after that lets look at the Indian representation in the top international fairs where the top collectors from all over the world to come and have a look and spot the next talent in line. In Art Basel, we only had Nature Morte & Bose Pacia, in Frieze ( in October in London) we only have Project 88 with Sarnath Banerjee, Chemould in FIAC in Paris and again Bose Pacia in Art Basel, Miami because it is in the US and they have a gallery in New York.

This is really poor representation and when I quizzed a leading gallerist as to why the participation in key fairs is so low, his response was that the shipping bills from last year were yet to be paid. Now it is natural to cut costs but in any business in the world, if marketing costs and the search for acquiring new collectors is cut by not participating or investing in a fair, then we could be looking at darker times ahead.How many new shows can you keep on doing and selling to the same collector base ?

Also, look at some of the prices that galleries are launching new shows at they are still removed from reality, in some cases a premium of over 20 -30 % of the last auction price, well this is like the stock market for a new issue, if you are not going to leave anything on the table for the collector and peg your price higher. The only way then is to do a show nearly every month, sell 2-3 works from each show and hold the rest in stock and then pray for the markets to recover and also the speculators to come back. I believe this short term vision is really hurting the market.

The other thing which is really funny is the number of art advisors that we have now, most of them lack any depth and knowledge and are happy signing you for an annual fees or taking a 10 % of whatever you buy and what they recommend, just google Indian art advisory and see the results. In such a shallow market, where in the primary space you have everything to choose from and data is available if you are ready to invest some time, build relationships with galleries and artists, get involved and enjoy the process of collecting, where does the art advisor fit in ?

I would visit galleries and shows, read a lot,sign up for a couple of good blogs, buy an Art Tactic report, speak to a couple of top galleries and before that see whether I really appreciate a work or not, instead of losing my 10 % to an art advisor in a buyers market where not only can I choose but even dictate the price to a certain extent. Now there are a couple of top notch art advisors who are good but again of all them can see the 5 best works in an auction and advise you to bid, then what is the point, better educate yourself and learn in the entire process.

Internationally access to a top gallery and a top artist was really tough in the last couple of years and an influential art advisor would open the gates for you.Here you can meet the top gallerist and drop him an email and you will have a response within 24 hours regarding your query.Yes, that may not be the same going ahead so why not build your relationship now. The thing about investment in our country is that at any moment there are more fly by the night operators than genuine sincere people, hence you hear of a financial fraud everyday. One of the art funds launched in India is already in trouble and the NAV ( Net Asset Value) figures of the most talked about and the largest are not trusted at all, how is that for a developing market !

This is not a gloom doom post but a reality check, there are people with immense levels of knowledge and depth, there are a couple of art advisors or maybe only one that I know who is sincere about what they bring on the table, look out for those beacon of lights if you must go to an art advisor to build a collection.

Then in all this, there is Saffronart,it is always difficult for an auction house to have a clean reputation but what Dinesh & Minal have achieved in the last few years is indeed commendable, now there are chinks in every armour but what they have done to introduce price transparency in the market is not an easy job. Prices change without logic in a day and that also at the top galleries, but here is a website where you can research 4 years of auction data, look at price comparisons and take informed decisions,I have not bought much from them, but when I did, it was a clean transaction and professionally handled.

So welcome to the world of Indian contemporary art, it is definitely interesting for sure, may not be very transparent with dealers and advisors not leaving an opportunity to make a fast buck,but what the heck,I still love collecting !

Cheers

Kapil

Kapil Chopra is Senior Vice President of Oberoi Hotels & Resorts and writes a blog on collecting and investing in Indian contemporary art at www.indianartinvest.blogspot.com and a fortnightly column in the Sunday Telegraph magazine "Graphiti" reaching over half a million readers.He has also written for "The Mail Today" in New Delhi and for "The First City" magazine.

Different Strokes !

2009-07-15T23:24:00.019+05:30

It is really funny as to how similar things are, if you ever get the pleasure of meeting Mr. P.R.S. Oberoi, Chairman of The Oberoi Group of Hotels and ask him what is the one key thing for a person to be a good hotelier, his response is "passion". Now, even in the world of art, the best artists are the ones who are passionately committed to their art. The question could be "Are all artists not passionate about their art?" and the answer is "NO". In the earlier times, artists survived just on passion,they hardly had any money or commercial success so the work that you saw was produced with heart and soul in it and without the scores of studio assistants! I get to meet a lot of artists and honestly today people make works with more commercial focus on their minds than what their heart tells them to make. Galleries are also happy keeping the equation intact so that the sales don't suffer although creativity,individual brilliance and passion sometimes get lost in this haze of commercialisation.

I get a lot of mails on indianartreview@gmail.com and some calls on sometimes people getting upset about what I say about the artists they represent, my counter to that is that I never started this blog for winning a popularity contest for being the best art critic or the best blog on Indian contemporary art. I am not qualified to be an art critic but I have learnt quite a lot in my few years of being an art collector and I always say this that I maybe have the best access in this space to the best artists,top collectors and the best of the art galleries worldwide. That combined with my experience of being an art collector just gives me a really good perspective as to what is happening in our art space. As I am a rank outsider in the art world, I can afford to be frank and honest about my opinion which can be quite refreshing for some people, 629 emails on how people love this blog to be precise, that is reward enough for me. I am not a curator or a critic who has to be very nice to a gallery otherwise I will not get my next show from the gallery. I do this writing out of passion and have a busy day job running what many people, myself included(Biased opinion!) believe is one of the best hotels in the Asia-Pacific region, Trident,Gurgaon and writing this blog and doing all my art research is a night job!

This blog is for the collector and the aspiring collector, it is not for the speculator although there is nothing wrong in selling either in an auction or to a gallery, I am selling when I want and buying a work every month for the last 4 months. As a collector, you buy what you like as long as the value is right. It is actually very enjoyable to buy in a recession, galleries spend more time with you and are able to differentiate real collectors from the speculators.

So read on, about 2 artists I talked about recently in my last article in "The Telegraph", Mithu Sen is someone who reminds you of an era where art was only about passion and she scores the highest marks for being a very passionate and talented artist.

This is the 4th article that I wrote for the Sunday edition of "The Telegraph" newspaper in the Magazine section of "Graphiti". Reaching over 0.5 million readers, this is being posted on the blog for the reading pleasure of the international readers of the blog who do not get a copy of the Telegraph...........................

I’ve been reading a lot about the recently concluded Sothebys auction, which set a new record of about Rs 2.9 crore for a stunning work by Jogen Choudhary. Many writers have concluded that the Indian art scene is reviving.

Are we jumping the gun slightly? The auction figures were very good but I think it showed one thing above all — that good quality work will always sell, especially ones by the modern masters. That brings us back to a point which I’ve made earlier: always buy an artist’s best and most significant works. The Jogen Choudhary canvas was a 1979 masterpiece and one of his best works. Quality always pays sooner or later, boom or recession.

The contemporary art market for artists with works produced after the year 2000 is yet to recover though. This is a blessing in disguise as irrational exuberance is out and only good quality art will sell — and I reckon that prices will, in some cases, be 50 per cent lower than last year.

That then becomes a reasonable price to follow your passion and still end up making the right collecting and investment decisions. So let’s look at one artist who’s making waves internationally and another new artist who’s just waiting to be discovered.

Mithu Sen did her Masters at Santiniketan before she went to the Glasgow School of Art in UK on a Charles Wallace India Trust fellowship. Mithu is a multi-talented artist, a painter turned sculptor and installation artist who also does multi-media video photography as part of her works.

I’ve always been intrigued by her art — it’s as unique as it gets. These aren’t canvas-based works but she does thought provoking art which is sometimes controversial. She caused quite a stir in Korea and more recently in Japan with works which had a different take on sexuality in society.

Also, I wasn’t able to appreciate what she did for a long time because her best work is mostly outside India and out here I would just get to see pieces from her installation but not the whole body of work. Her art focuses a lot on the human body and bones and the skeleton. There’s also her series on Icarus.

I also admire Mithu because at the peak of the art boom in April 2007, she kicked off a project called the “Free Mithu” project. She invited select friends, colleagues, and acquaintances to send her a “letter with love” in exchange for a free artwork by her in a medium of their choice.

This was a brave move because at that time even her small works were valued at between Rs 1 lakh and Rs 2 lakh. It was courageous of a young artist to say that the commercial aspect did not matter, and that she would gift a work with a personal authentication that you could even sell. Most of these were small but nice works.

I’d suggest that you take a look at Bose Pacia’s website out of New York and Suzie Q out of Zurich to get a better idea of Mithu’s art. There aren’t too many artists who’ve done solos in New York and Zurich, shown at a couple of museum shows in Tokyo and Korea and are now preparing for another one in Vienna — and all this in 18 months.

She’s a potential superstar who’s passionate and committed. But you have to be in love with her art to get one of her important works. I feel it’s best to only look at works which are a minimum of 30in by 40in and cost between Rs 3 lakh and Rs 5 lakh.

Her larger works at Bose Pacia, which are around 42in x 82in, sell for around Rs 8 lakh to Rs 10 lakh. A work from the same series went for Rs 40 lakh at last year’s Saffronart auction.

(Nothing lost in translation,an installation at The Musuem of Modern Art,Tokyo)

Yati Jaiswal is an artist, who’s still building his reputation. I was introduced to his work by the “KAVA 4”, an award given by Kochi’s Kashi Art Gallery. I’ve always looked carefully at the KAVA 4 winners because Kashi Art puts in huge amounts of research before giving out its awards. Yati Jaiswal was one of last year’s winners and I started checking him out the moment the winners were announced.

I discovered a young and talented artist. Yati is humble and passionate about his art and not very prolific. He sent me some images of his really lovely canvas works that appeal from an aesthetic and emotional perspective. The canvases are an eclectic mix of the ancient and modern with a focus on machines in a time warp.

Some pieces have a three-dimensional quality and the machines and characters seem to be coming out of the canvas. The values of between Rs 1 lakh and Rs 2.5 lakh for significant works are also very reasonable for an award-winning artist of his potential.

(Into Hibernation and Self Preservation)

These two artists are at very different stages of their career —one has already made the jump into the international arena; the other has won an important award and may break into an entirely new orbit soon. Take your pick and enjoy your art!

Class acts

2009-06-28T10:20:00.032+05:30

Here is the 3rd article in my series on Contemporary art that I am writing for " Graphiti" the Sunday magazine for The Telegraph newspaper every fortnight reaching over 0.5 million readers. This article was published last Sunday and is reproduced here for you on the blog in case you missed a copy!

As I’m focusing on the contemporary art space and more specifically on the artists who have produced a majority of their works following 2000, I’ll now detail some of the most interesting artists you should take a look at. I feel they’re the best in their class, all very unique in their own way.

Uniqueness is extremely important to an artist’s work. A lot of artists now copy styles or are significantly influenced by another artist. For instance, I was looking at a contemporary art auction catalogue from Philips de Pury for their London sale and some of the similarities between works by established international artists and some new upcoming Indian ones is quite striking.

In this article, we’re going to cover an artist who’s very good with canvas, an artist who specialises in prints on a very different medium like matchboxes and an installation artist who’s also a photographer. Each has exhibited at prominent shows internationally and their work is stunning in its own way. Now let’s get down to examining these three mediums and our exceptional artists.

T.V. Santosh: He’s an exceptional artist, very humble and down to earth. His canvas works come across with nice fluorescent hues and are stunning to look at. Santosh focused on terror, terrorism and also the religious divides that exist in the world today much before other artists even started looking at such themes and his canvases portray them really well.

Now it’s expensive to own a T.V. Santosh canvas. Even in this depressed market one of his large canvases will cost you around Rs 25 lakh. He shows in the US in October and had shown in March at Grosvenor Vadehra in London. His watercolours which are in the Rs 3 lakh range are more affordable and actually, I felt earlier the quality was not as good as it is today.

I have seen stunning watercolours now but I would still recommend that you go for a smaller canvas as those are a visual treat for the senses and our rule has always been to buy the best work or the most significant work.

Scars of an Ancient Error-I

Shilpa Gupta: Photography can be classified into two fields — one is documentary photography and there’s also what I call message-based photography. Documentary photography will cover the landscapes of Ladakh, an event or an image of the sunrise over the ocean or sunset in the mountains.

Shilpa Gupta does not do documentary photography. She does installations and she’s a video artist and her photographs are usually a part of her installations. Her message-based photography is maybe the best we have in this field. But, in fact, it’s her photographs which command high prices.

She conveys important messages through her art. Take a look at her visual which has a banner running through the sky that says there’s no border here, borders are on the ground between war-torn nations and others but you can’t divide the sky! This was originally used in her installation Here There is No Border.

She has done another interesting series called There is no explosive here in which she had people carry bags wrapped in white canvas saying that there were no explosives in the bags. This was a reference to the London Underground blasts after which everyone with a bag was viewed with suspicion.

If you go through her resume, you’ll find that there’s hardly any country or museum that she has not shown in. She’s an exceptional artist and can be quite prolific. Try and get the work shown here which is in an edition of 10. There is no explosive here with a red background on a metro station is the best work in the entire Explosive series. This is an edition of six.

In fact, when I had to buy her best work, I had to buy it a long way from home at the Gallery Volker Diehl in Berlin — now that’s a real international artist. Her editioned works are priced between Rs 3 lakh and Rs 4 lakh.

An untitled work by Shilpa Gupta

Prajjwal Choudhury: He’s a young emerging artist from Calcutta who studied in Baroda and he works with a very unique medium — matchboxes. Yes, your normal everyday matchboxes. He prints his own images and pastes them on the matchboxes so that they deliver a message.

He had a solo with the gallery Project 88 in Mumbai and is quite exceptional. He uses images of works by other artists and puts them on a matchbox. It’s a visual delight to watch his work and in this work, Who Will Be Next, he takes all the images that established artists have made internationally and takes a dig at them saying, it’s all the same stuff presented in a different form and that what you see today will again come in front of you just presented differently.

Prajjwal comments on this recycling of art and conveys a message that the art being shown today has already been shown earlier and will again be recycled to be shown again with some changes. His satirical approach to the recycling of art through his medium of handmade matchboxes joined tog-ether for a huge collage is unique and interesting.

Bhavna Kakar & Aparajita Jain from Latitude 28 Gallery and Seven Art in New Delhi showed him recently at a show in Delhi which got rave reviews. His work is available at between Rs 75,000 and Rs 2 lakh.

Everything has been done before but we like to go back and begin all over again

In our next article, I will discuss some more of our contemporary stars who are redefining our art landscape.

The Art of Buying !

2009-06-19T17:08:00.014+05:30

Well, we are really getting active on this blog, with frequent posts and thank you all for your deluge of emails, my apologies in some cases where my response has been delayed. If you have had the good fortune of reading the article on contemporary Indian art in the "Time" magazine, it clearly outlines the fact that values for contemporary art are down to 25 % of what they were a year back, we have been commenting on this all along that the contemporary market that we cover is still a long way from recovery. Sothebys on 16th June in London in their Indian art sale set a new record by Jogen Choudhary but unfortunately a lot of contemporary artists failed to sell.

As you are aware that I write an article every fortnight in the 'Graphiti' magazine which comes with the Sunday Telegraph newspaper, here is the article which appeared on the 14th of June for all the international readers of this blog.

One of the biggest issues faced by collectors involves the valuation of art which is a minefield. As we’re talking in this column about contemporary art we’re just focusing on artists who were selling commercially post 1995 — not about the F.N. Souzas or M.F. Husains. If you already own a significant work of modern art like a Ganesh Pyne or an S.H. Raza, count yourself lucky as values have soared, especially between 2005 and 2008.

But when everything’s on the rise, even insignificant contemporary works shoot up as people jump on the bandwagon. Studio assistants for some of the biggest names churn out more works, art dealers and galleries join in and whoosh go the prices. Also artists start eyeing their contemporaries and mark up prices. Then there’s a crash and values become more realistic but still many art figures refuse to accept the market realities. So how do you know now if you’re getting a good work of art for the right price? Here are some pointers:

First rule is buy what you like! This is one of the oldest rules in the book but it’s worth repeating. Don’t race to buy a work because someone has told you its price will double in two years. Aesthetic appreciation is the key factor. Investment comes a distant second.

That being said, realise your tastes will evolve. Also have people around you who can explain and guide you and try to approach pieces with an open mind. The first time I saw an Aditya Pande work, for instance, I didn’t like it because it wasn’t typical canvas art. But then as I looked at his work more I saw he used computer graphic lines to great effect, merging them with enamel paint and the finish of an inkjet on a paper to come up with distinctive and unusual pieces. The moral is: don’t be afraid to change your mind. The fact that Pande’s work is overpriced is a separate matter! But if you follow this rule, welcome to your journey as an art collector!

An untitled work by Aditya Pande

Study the artist’s biography in detail, which college they attended, which awards they’ve got, where they’ve had shows and which gallery is promoting them. I went to the India Habitat Centre for a Shiv Varma show last year. Why? He’s won the Kashi award and also the IHC-Art India award — two prizes I respect. I needed to see his works, although his forte is sculpture. I liked one canvas and bought it for Rs 2.5 lakh — a 6ft x 6ft work — and which from a value perspective suited me.

Also, I went through Shiv’s biography, met him, spoke to him and understood the philosophy behind his art. This all took less than an hour but such due diligence will help you as an art collector. And once you decide to buy purchase significant works. Try to buy the best work on show!

Pay attention to the promoting gallery. The top galleries will usually get the best artists and mentor them. Also they’ll be exhibited at the right spaces and shown at key international fairs — broadening the collector base. In the contemporary art space, it’s key for an artist to be represented by an influential gallery. India’s top artist Subodh Gupta is now represented by Hauser & Wirth, a powerful European gallery with an enviable set of collectors. They’ll ensure he gets placed in the right collections and the right museums internationally — all this adds value. So look for the key galleries. I’m always inclined to see those featured at Nature Morte and Vadehra Art Gallery in Delhi, Sakshi and Chemould in Mumbai, Kashi in Cochin and Aakriti in Calcutta for the “Generation Next” series they have on display.

Get the pricing right for emerging talent. Let’s assume you walk into a show or a friend tells you to buy a particular art work. Do you take an instinctive decision or you look at some of the data before you buy? The problem is there’s no pricing logic to younger artists’ works. I attend shows of artists just out of college or having shown at an insignificant gallery and starting prices are Rs 3 lakh to Rs 4 lakh for a medium sized canvas (36in x 48in). That’s totally incorrect pricing according to me. I don’t understand the logic of that price. Where did it come from?

As far as I’m concerned, if the artist hasn’t been in an international auction and doesn’t have a pricing record history (even auctions can be rigged so sometimes you need at least a two-year price history), then the benchmark price can be calculated as Rs 3,000 to Rs 8,000 per sqft. Art purists may scoff but this rule of thumb will save a lot of new collectors from being conned into buying art not valued properly.

I’ve bought nearly all of the new contemporary artists whom I believe have a great future at this price point. Now, this isn’t a strict rule but it will pass the test most times. I bought an excellent 5ft by 5ft Vibha Galhotra canvas. She’s a very talented contemporary artist and last year was shown as the top emerging talent at the Shanghai Contemporary art fair. The cost was Rs 2 lakh or around Rs 8,000 per square foot for an artist who was showing internationally and also was one of the highlighted artists at a fair of significant importance. This was bound to move up and now it’s maybe close to Rs 4 lakh, so do try and identify artists with potential.

Introspection by Vibha Galhotra

I also place a premium on artists who try and keep in touch with their collectors. An example is New York-based Seher Shah, who always sends an update to her collectors when she is showing somewhere or giving a talk in a museum.

Projective-1 by Seher Shah

Also critical is looking at the number of artworks an artist produces. Younger artists and even the top contemporary league are quite prolific. The logic last year was to make hay while the sun shone. Today, the values of many artists have fallen to 20 per cent of where they were a year ago and this is among the really top league. They were talented but over-productive.

Atul Dodiya, excellent by any standard, showed 40 watercolours at the Bodhi show in Mumbai last year and had scores of prints in editions of 20 from a Singapore workshop too. The market doesn’t have enough collectors to absorb such large numbers and his market crashed. Buying at the right price is the key. The bottom line is: do your homework.

Kapil Chopra is a senior hospitality professional and writes a blog on collecting and investing in Indian contemporary art at www.indianartinvest.blogspot.com and a fortnightly column in the Sunday Telegraph magazine "Graphiti" reaching over half a million readers.

Indian Contemporary Art - Recovery still a long way off !

2009-06-13T22:28:00.021+05:30

Well, its auction season and two of them are already over, Christies and Saffronart have finished with their sales, so what are the results ? Let me give you a brief synopsis of how I see the market behind the veil, the truth is coming out albeit slowly !

First things first, the Moderns, Husain, Souza and Raza with Gaitonde are still going very strong, the appetite from good quality works from the masters is still there and they are selling well, not as good as last year but recovering. We as a blog focus on the contemporary space and that is still going through a deep and long but much needed price correction and I am really happy for that.

So how do I make a statement like that? Very simple, Subodh sold well at 94 lacs (I say well because it was higher than 79 lacs in the last auction!) and Rasid Rana at 1.3 crores for the Red Carpet means that appetite for his important works from the series like Veil and Red Carpet (where the images are actually from an abattoir and the blood makes the red carpet ) is still strong. These two gentlemen are anyway in a different league so what happens to the other lot or the 2nd tier of contemporary artists who till last year were hailed as the next big thing to be hitting the Indian art scene, well for some of them due to their greed and also the galleries and honestly most of the galleries need to have lessons in pricing art are down in the dumps!

So, lets talk about the three superstars, Surendran Nair, set a record of over 2 crores just a year back in the Saffronart auction, a work from the same series and a very well known work also displayed at the Hong Kong Art fair this time could not even match a lower estimate of 14 lacs! can you believe it, there was no one who even quoted 14 lacs for an artist who set a new price record of 2 crores plus last year, the work is here for you to see, as I said I was a buyer at 10 lacs but no one would touch it at 14 plus buyer premium plus tax, that is 18 lacs !

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Second, contemporary star, Justin Ponmany, also showing at Art Basel the world's top art fair, we had mentioned a value point of again 10 lacs in our earlier blog post,now we are talking about a 10.5 ft work by 6 ft work, a good 65 ft work which just failed to sell again.Another one bites the dust, we said 10 lacs, the lower estimate said 20 so no value for money and Justin also goes down with no bids at that level !

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Third, Contemporary star, Ashim Purkayastha, saw a lovely work of his at one of the exhibitions at my hotel, last year and the work was priced at 70 lacs! Again a huge canvas with a lower estimate of 14 lacs, failed to sell! What a fall!

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Fourth, Contemporary star, Jagannath Panda, had a nice triptych which was again 10 ft by 6 ft so a 60 ft work which finally sold at 13 lacs plus buyer premium! Thank heavens for that. It will be interesting to watch his pricing at his upcoming solo at Nature Morte in August, will he like all the other artists mark his primary pricing over the auction price or will the best gallery in the country be more sedate with the pricing and follow public opinion !

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So what is the moral of the story, for collectors like us it is important to be not carried away by the sweet talk that galleries are putting out and some of our contemporary artists are way beyond logical pricing levels. Also, galleries are still being completely illogical and high handed about prices, they claim to be in this for the aesthetic love of art but are very happy taking home illogical values home. I see young artists all the time with ridiculous pricing and my mantra on buying is very simple, young artists showing with a major gallery in a solo show for the first time and there are only 5-6 top galleries in the country should be priced around 1 lac for a medium sized canvas of 3 by 4 ft and 2 lacs for a 5 by 5 ft canvas, this is after you have had your solo with the real top boys. The problem is and I can give you countless examples of the first price only being 4-5 lacs, now that is setting up for disaster for a new collector.We do not even have 10 top contemporary artists who can guarantee a sale in an international auction and with such big boys failing to sell, be conservative with your buying for now.

Its time to have galleries price with a logic of building artists and collections, greed needs to be out otherwise we will be writing the obituary of contemporary Indian art. There are many collectors who own works from the wonderful artists mentioned above but are all stuck as they see their investment depreciating faster than any other asset class, love your art but be very careful, primary values have to be lower than auction values always ! That is my advise to all collectors otherwise just walk away, also remember that in odd cases auction values can be manipulated easily so always err on the side of caution.

I see more fly by the night operators in selling art than I see as a percentage in the stock market!

Buy what you love and that is the key, also at the price you want not what the gallery or the art dealer or consultant dictates !

Also, our predictions for the auction in an earlier post were bang on target as we said that the pricing was way too high for collectors to buy, please read our comments and I am pleased to see that people are not getting carried away for a change !

Cheers

Kapil

Kapil Chopra is a senior hospitality professional and writes a blog on collecting and investing in Indian contemporary art at www.indianartinvest.blogspot.com and a fortnightly column in the Sunday Telegraph magazine "Graphiti" reaching over half a million readers.

Clouded Canvas !

2009-05-31T11:25:00.009+05:30

Dear All,

Thank to your overwelming support over the last couple of months when I opened this blog for public viewing, I will now be writing a column on Collecting & Investing in Indian Contemporary Art in the "Graphiti" Sunday Magazine of The Telegraph newspaper. The Telegraph Sunday edition has a circulation of over 5 lac( 0.5 million) readers and hence our views on being careful and collecting the right artists will reach more people. I would also like to thank the Deputy Editor of The Telegraph newspaper Mr. Paran Balakrishnan for actually going through this blog and giving me this opportunity to share my learnings with more people. He has also taken the time and effort to edit and improve on what I am trying to convey. Thank you Paran, without your support and encouragement, my journalistic venture would not have ben possible !

Here is the article which appeared last Sunday on the 31st of May in "Graphiti" produced here for the international readers of this blog and also for those who missed it,the article was called "Clouded Canvas" ! My next article in Telegraph newspaper comes next sunday in "The Graphiti " magazine, which is the 14th of June.

Enjoy the article and as always, comments are more than welcome, we now average 50 new unique vistors to this blog everyday !

The Article starts from here.....................

The Indian art market is a bit gloomy now but there is a silver lining, says Kapil Chopra

Phantoms X1 by Thukral & Tagra

Indian contemporary art has experienced a roller-coaster ride over the last three years. The boom began towards the end of 2005 and values started getting more astronomical by the day, hitting their peak in 2008. Now, with a major correction going on in the art market overheated values are slowly coming down.

Artists who made it big overnight are being more realistic and the quality of work being turned out is improving. In the boom, quality came under pressure with often similar works being churned out.

In value terms, let’s look at some examples of how severe the correction has been in the prices of top contemporary artists. Subodh Gupta went for a record Rs 5.1 crore for a canvas in the Saffronart auction last year. This year the value for a canvas that was nearly the same size had plummeted to Rs 79 lakh.

The same phenomenon has been seen internationally with top contemporary artists like Damien Hirst failing to make any major sales after September 2008 — when the global financial crisis really started biting. The current Christie’s sale in New York had scarcely any Hirst works in fact!

During the boom some artists turned into overnight stars. It seemed that suddenly Indian artists had become the flavour of the decade. The rush to buy of course was fuelled by higher disposable income coupled with the greed of galleries and collectors. All this sent prices soaring.
In December, T.V. Santosh, who’s a visually appealing artist with his fluorescent hues, went for Rs 27 lakh for a 6ft by 4ft canvas in the Saffronart auction. However just three months earlier, the same piece was going for over Rs 80 lakh.

Suddenly, works of prominent contemporary artists like Atul & Anju Dodiya are just not visible on the auction calendars and collectors who had bought them at over Rs 50 lakh a canvas have been stuck with no exit routes.

The galleries which make anything from 33 per cent to 50 per cent as commission on pieces were happy to prop up prices. So were the artists who were able to mark up their prices every couple of months. Then the bubble burst, the liquidity that had pushed the market evaporated and prices crashed.

When Your Target Cries For Mercy by T.V. Santosh

The Art Tactic Indian Contemporary Art Confidence Index, which tracks the top contemporary art collectors, is now down 63 per cent from October 2008, highlighting the severity of the fall. And with art being what is called an “illiquid asset” — this means with such a strong fall, there are virtually no buyers even for some of the best works. So is it all gloom, boom and doom in the art market or is there a silver lining to this cloud? I’d say that if you’ve just started collecting contemporary art, then it just does not get better than this.

Why this optimism?

The prices are more realistic and works are much more available now as compared to six months ago. At that time, if you wanted to buy a Thukral & Tagra or a Shilpa Gupta work you wouldn’t have been able to get one. Now you’ll find the galleries much more accessible and realistic with their prices. So you can now not only buy quality but also get it at the right price.

The valuations for younger emerging talent are becoming quite appealing in some cases. I bought a nice triptych by Prajjwal Choudhary a couple of weeks ago. For a work which was high on quality and content, the price for a 9ft by 4ft work was Rs 1.75 lakh which was a real bargain.

But still beware. Some galleries and artists haven’t realised the good times are over. I went to an emerging young artist show in New Delhi and saw a 8ft by 6ft canvas priced at Rs 12 lakh. This artist had never been featured in any auction for me to be able to form a proper estimate of the work’s worth. He had only one solo show in Munich to his credit. So guess what happened? Predictably enough, he hardly sold anything. He was finally forced to drop his prices by 40 percent but still had no takers.

This kind of unrealistic pricing is happening with reputed established galleries. Shows are still being launched at unrealistic prices and then being revised downwards. Galleries should wake up and smell the coffee. And if they don’t, market trends will force them to take corrective action which is good news for buyers.

As galleries and artist come to grips with the new realities of the art market, another positive is that we’re seeing the better works being turned out with more detail. There’s a real effort to make each piece different. This is thanks to the fact that artists are under the threat of not selling. The pressure to churn out more works of the same series is definitely out and new ideas and craftsmanship is back and that can only be healthy for the art market.

The dividing line between quality and mediocrity is more evident than ever before. Log onto Astaguru.com for the results of their latest auction and you’ll see that nearly half the auction works were not sold as collectors didn’t make any bids even at the lower estimates mainly due to the mediocrity of works and lack of confidence in the market.

So do make that visit to the art show that you wanted to go to and also send your gallery a list of artists you enjoy and would like to buy. I will in the coming articles take you on a journey of how to value that piece of contemporary art that you always wanted to buy. Enjoy your art — but definitely not without investment and price rationale!

Kapil Chopra is a senior hospitality professional and an art collector. He writes a blog on investing in Indian contemporary art on www.indianartinvest.blogspot.com

Astaguru Gone & Saffronart Coming ! - An Auction Analysis

2009-05-21T21:06:00.021+05:30

Let us talk about the art market right now, Astaguru the auction house set up just a year back concluded its second sale recently in May, now that is a really brave thing to be doing an art auction in May, the end result was worse than they would have expected with close to 50 % of the lots failing to sell. Now, it was not a sale of exceptional works but it was fine if you were looking to buy well priced art and some of it was not bad, I was a buyer of Rashid Rana's famous veil series which has a "Burqa" or a Veil made up with tiny photographs of hardcore pornography and looking like a veil, that is the first time such a controversial work was sold in an Indian auction catalogue, although Sothebys did sell a larger version last year and also the Schandra Singh ( she has never shown in India and represented by the Rare Art gallery in New York and Galerie Bertrand & Gruner in Switzerland), both the works went close to the higher estimates and I stayed away.

The problem with the auction houses as I see it as that it is important to do a sell and quality honestly has not gone up, look at the TV Santosh in Astaguru, very bad work and Saffronart comes up with a watercolor ! now when you can't even manage a decent canvas then why do a contemporary auction ? Look at both the catalogues, no good TV Santosh Canvas, no Thukral & Tagra Canvas, no Bharti Kher work, No substantial NS Harsha work in the established category.Both the auctions did not really show some of the real good emerging talent but stuck to the artists they promote, they deny it but look at Rahul Choudhary and Jagannath Mohapatra for Astaguru and Sudhanshu Sutar ( they have flogged him to death !) and Phaneendra Nath Chaturvedi for Saffronart, no one buys them outside this forum. Phaneendra had a work in Astaguru which was a 5 by 5 feet work only for 1 lac and it failed to sell !

Saffronart is fortunate that the stock market has moved up, confidence is back and art markets which generally lag the stock markets may finally pick up, that is when the real test comes, I sincerely hope this time around people will be logical and more careful in their selection. So what would I be looking at in the upcoming Saffronart auction and the price points that I would look at making a buying decision, how much more transparent can I get ? !

Lot 12 A Ramachandran for 1 lac would be a steal ( not from an investment perspective, I love the work !),

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Lot 20 Surendran Nair 35.5 by 27.5 inches at 10 lacs is a fantastic deal, I like the work and its good investment

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( The quality of TV Santosh and Shilpa Gupta works is not good enough to be in an auction, Jogen - Lot 49 Value at 35 to 45 lacs is ridiculous according to me )

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Lot 59 -N S Harsha ( please view this work in high resolution and read the line, I just love this guy, he is really the best, I am buying him even right now !) Although not one of his best works but still I love the line on a bleeding artisan with blood coming from the clown's nose, I would go till 2.25 lacs for these 2 works.

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Lot 64 - Justin Ponmany is a nice work but the estimates of 20-25 lacs are way too high, I will only half this price for a Justin ( he has now failed to sell in a number of auctions )

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I must admit that some of the modern works in this auction are really nice but that is something beyond the scope of this blog, just one comment,do buy the lovely V S Gaitonde ( Lot 38) at 1 crore if you have the bucks !

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Happy reading and lets see if some of the good cheer has worked its magic on the art world as well ! My advise is that you should definately start buying some of the established conteporaries and the younger emerging lot otherwise you may have miss a good buying opportunity, just be prudent and follow the rules as underlined in this blog earlier. Do visit both the websites at http://www.saffronart.com/ and http://www.astaguru.com/ to download the upcoming auction catalogue from Saffronart and the auction results from Astaguru and then go through this blog note, it will help you in the analysis.

Thank you all for your support and my apologies for the delay in responding to some of your comments on indianartreview@gmail.com, keep them coming !

Cheers

Kapil Chopra

Do visit all the earlier posts, comments and recommendations for investing on my blog at www.indianartinvest.blogspot.com

Sydney Art Review & What I am buying now!

2009-05-03T22:13:00.019+05:30

Well, Delhi is getting hot by the day ! and I am back from a lovely week in Sydney where the Australian winter is just setting in ! I was in beautiful Sydney on business and I always take out time for my favourite passion which is art, so the free time I can squeeze in goes in educating myself on the art scenario in the country.

We were fortunate as in an event at Intercontinental Sydney, Fred Matti, the GM did a wonderful job of organising an event banquet where the sights of Sydney and the food of Sydney was brought into the hotel, it became my first interaction with Australian art where I met Brenda Colahan who is an Australian art advisor and she gave me a great run down on Australian art and here it is for you, the two most important living artists in Australia are John Olsen and Tim Storrier. John Olsen is the top artist and his large canvas is priced at around 80 lacs and a good large Tim Storrier at around 60-65 lacs, the size being 6 ft by 8 ft works or close to that.

On Sunday, I had the privilege of meeting my good friend Bradley Cocks with Collette Dinnigan, Australia's top fashion designer and having boutiques in London and Paris. I had an opportunity to share a Rose wine with her at their lovely residence covered by Vogue and then took me to meet Tim Olsen son of the legendary John Olsen, Australia's top artist. Tim runs two wonderful galleries in the posh Paddington area of Sydney. The galleries were simple but exquisite in their appearance with natural light coming in and lighting up the whole space. There was a show by a young artist called Paul Davies and honestly coming from the overheated Indian market, the prices were really unbelievably low which made me remark instantly as to how reasonable the prices were. To put it in perspective, Guy Maestri recently won the Archibald 2009 award for a portrait of the singer Yunupingu as shown below, it is Australia's top award and carries a prize money of ASD 50,000 (approximately 18 lacs now compare this with some of our awards instituted most of the time by galleries who make tons of money and give a prize money of Rs 50,000 to Rs 1,00,000).Tim who represents him had a canvas of 8 ft by 6.5 ft for close to 6 lacs that is close to 12,000 a sq ft and this artist won the top prize, I can tell you scores of artists in India who haven't even won a significant award and are quoting at double these valuations.

(Geoffrey Gurrumul Yunupingu)

An interesting thing I noticed was the focus on aboriginal art in Australia and the attention that is drawing, that could be a pre cursor to our own tribal art really taking off, so be on the lookout for that ! The other thing I noticed when I went to the Museum of Contemporary art in Sydney was the number of children who had come in to have a look at the art with their parents, now this convinces me on the future growth of this market as children grow up appreciating art. I also saw one of the most inspiring installation shows by the famous lady Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama, it was mind blowing and her installation for someone born in 1929 was more contemporary than the younger lot !

Well, back in Delhi, I was quite impressed with Bhavna Kakkar and Aparajita Jain's new show at Travancore space in Delhi called Re-claim/Re-cite/Re-Cycle. I went on the last day of the show as the invite was very inspiring and I was curious to have a look. Bhavna curated an exceptional show and one of the best shows that I have been to this year. I walked in not really being ready to buy anything and was just blown away by a work by Prajjwal Choudhary who had a very interesting piece on recycling of art, I bought this piece shown below which is actually matchboxes with prints of Damien Hirst's Skull,Jogen Choudhary's works, Ravinder Reddy and many more, the matchboxes are arranged to say " Who Will b next " in a triptych,its a huge work and has a lot of profound thoughts on the matchboxes and merged with the art. So this is what I have bought in the last 10 days. It was a pleasure to have met Prajjwal at the show also, I was very impressed with his detail and idea with which he approached the whole subject of recycling and how the same art was being created in a different forms by other artists and the question was " Who will be next to be cloned ?". I felt his take on the whole subject was great. So I applied my buying principles which are I liked the work, it was a significant work, the artist was backed by an excellent gallery Project 88 and that his value for a huge triptych which was 2 by 12 feet at around 1.75 lacs was reasonable for this work. I made a buying decision and actually love the work, this is not a promotion for you to buy Prajjwal but I think he is interesting and you can look at his last solo in the past exhibitions section of Project 88 and do some research on him before you make your own buying decision.

Till then enjoy the summer sun, take a break and track the Astaguru auction at http://www.astaguru.com/ for further trends on the art market.

Cheers

Kapil Chopra

Disclaimer - As usual, please assume I have a vested interest in all I say ! Please do your own research and apply your own buying principles before you buy a work of art and only buy if you enjoy the work !

Young Artists and Valuations !

2009-04-18T12:33:00.019+05:30

Well, I think the last few days have been really satisfying for me, I would first like to thank, Nivedita, Anangsen and Fine arts for 3 lovely comments on my last post, it is really fantastic for you all to take out the time and post such detailed comments, encourages me more to keep on with this blog. We have now crossed over 1,000 unique visitors and with only word of mouth referrals and I see 30 new visitors on an average. If you have the time please click on the comments section on my last blog and go through the comments, they are better than this blog !

Also, there is an interesting discussion on Indian Art News on blogs and we have been featured there and most people have appreciated what we are doing except one who was not happy with our leanings towards contemporary art. The key thing here is that if you read through my first post, it very clearly mentions that we are a contemporary art blog, we are not tracking moderns as we choose to do that, we are clearly focused in our approach and our area of interest. Also we are advising people to put in money and the maximum is 30 lacs and you don't get a nice Hussain or a Souza canvas for 30 lacs, so its beyond our investment purview, also personally and this is a pure personal opinion, I know enough people who had their parents buy the Moderns at 1 lac to 5 lac range and I don't feel like investing ( don't forget we are an investment advisory blog not just an art critique or review blog ) with such an unfair disadvantage where I pick it up at 60 lacs ! So please if you follow the moderns or in the specific case of the discussion on Indian art news where a dealer took exception to this, please do not follow the blog as we have nothing to contribute to the modern space and neither will I advocate putting in money into the moderns as I cannot comment outside the scope of this blog.

So here we go, let me discuss 3 artists on this blog who I think are young, smart and exceptional in their own ways. They have very good galleries backing and have a great future hopefully but I have a few points to mention on how far I see them going, in my opinion all of them have had huge pricing issues and are grossly overpriced. Now my comparison is going to be with some auction prices and that sometimes do not represent the true picture, like a 6 by 6 T&T canvas in Saffronart went for 14 lacs in the last auction ( really not a nice work, it was part of a series and the seller just put one part in an auction so there was no appeal and the price crashed ) and in Sothebys in late september in the financial meltdown when only 19 out of 31 works were sold, they went for over 1 crore in the best of Asia catalogue. So now, when I can choose a good work, I know I can pay 25-30 lacs for it. At the end of the day you will make your own rules and I can guide you through it, the quality of work is also very critical but look for it when it is similar and then compare prices.Also, artists evolve over time and some series will always attract a premium, so you will be dead if you compare Dislocation from Rashid Rana to the "Veil" series, I will happily pay a 100 % premium for "Veil" and not buy Dislocation ever ! It went for 6 lacs for a 33.5 by 45 inch work and a work from the series "Veil" would be at least 40 lacs for this size or more ! Here I go with my take on 3 artists I love and a comment and discussion on their values, we will look at many more cases like these in the coming days.....

Gurusiddappa G.E -Represented by the Sakshi art gallery, what a lovely solo show he had, please go into the past exhibitions section of http://www.sakshigallery.com/ to view his show. Excellent hand,content and really nice works but expensive for a young emerging artist. He featured in the last autumn Saffronart catalogue at an estimate of 8 lacs to 9 lacs for a 5 feet by 6 feet work, so that is 30 ft and at Rs 30,000 per square feet it is quite steep, give me his work any day at half this price for 4,50,000 to 5,00,000 and I am a buyer for an artist who I believe is exceptional in his handling. Arvind Vijaymohan of Japa art advisory was the first person who mentioned to me have a look at his work more than a year back and I was impressed. Guess what happened at the Saffronart sale ? the work did not sell ! although a lot of people liked him. Now pricing is very relative thing and it always pays to be conservative.

Aditya Pande - Exceptional artist and works very differently from the rest, he uses the computer to full use with graphic lines, merges them with enamel paint and the finish of an inkjet to really come up with stunning pieces. Backed by solos with Alexia Goethe in London, Nature Morte( part of a 3 artist show) by Peter Nagy and then Chaterjee & Lal in Mumbai. He has the best galleries representing his exceptional talent and that has made his prices rocket to as high as 10 lacs for a work.Again, the prices for someone who has just come on to the scene were getting carried away, I know a very good friend of mine had bought his work at 1.5 lacs and now it was at 10 lacs and over so he exited the work as all this happened in 18 months, too fast a time for someone who is producing works quite regularly and still has many more years ahead of him. So, what did we have in the recent Saffronart auction, we had a 6 ft by 3.5 ft so a 21 ft work for an estimate of 7-9 lacs so an average of 40,000 per sq ft for a young artist in a market which has crashed, well guess the result, the work got sold at 4.84 lacs plus buyer premium, so close to 40 % lower than the median estimate of 8 lacs. Again, the market was too heated and the valuation bizarre to be getting in for anyone ! His last solo show in Mumbai was marked at 7.5 lacs to 8 lacs, I think.

George Martin PJ - He had a waiting list of maybe 3-4 months to even get his work in a resale, very nice looking works and his appeal was huge, his solo show at Palette was sold out even before it opened with people just waiting to get a canvas. He is again an artist who is magical with colours and to have and view a George Martin canvas is a pleasure ( I own a lovely George Martin canvas). He generally works in a 5 by 5 ft format and started a couple of years back at 2 lacs for a canvas, last year the rates were as high as 12 lacs and they were moving a lac every month in the frenzy ! so you had a big line but no one could buy as works were limited. His rise always puzzled me as he never had a top league gallery backing him,when I say that it does not mean that Palette is not a top league gallery,but I always saw his works in all these group shows very couple of months, generally gallery contracts are very strict for you to give works to other galleries. So he was a good marketing guy who sold his works well through all these group shows and still made it big in a world where a singular gallery backs you to the hilt and you get higher visibility. I do think he got carried away with all that and his artist prices also kept on getting revised every month, till it came down faster than the rest of the pack as some speculators exited. He is now available at around 6 lacs and that is close to the right price for him so a good 50 % correction from his price 6 months back.

So here is my take on these talented artists and my disclaimer is,please assume that I have a vested interest in all I say as that will make it easier for you if you disagree with me !

Do keep on posting all those great comments !

Cheers

Kapil Chopra

Young, Emerging and Established Artists - A Perspective

2009-03-29T21:44:00.010+05:30

Well, here is the post that I promised, been to Berlin and then to lovely Moscow in the last few days, finishing the week with two art shows that I attended this week. Berlin is a lovely city with a lot of history and with Nature Morte, Bodhi ( now closed) and Volker Diehl ( they are a fantastic gallery both in Berlin and Moscow) there is enough on Indian art happening there. In Moscow, Russian art has been going through the roof, I stayed at the lovely Ritz Carlton hotel facing the Kremlin and guess what they have a gallery below the lobby level, open only by invitation. The gallery houses European masters and some of the works are over a 100 years old and valuations could be upto 10 million USD.It is managed by a private art fund called Aurora and I met one of the partners who was really passionate about what they did.

Now, why this post ? the main reason is that like all other asset classes even Indian art like Russian art has gone through the roof. So when everything in a market moves, insignificant works by contemporary artists also go through the roof as no one wants to miss out, studio assistants for some of the real big names start churning out more works, art dealers and galleries join in and start marking up the prices. More than the galleries, artists start thinking that they are really worth much more. Then there is a market crash and values sometimes become realistic but most of the people especially the one who have just arrived on the scene and also some of the older ones who never really made it refuse to accept market realities. So here are some of the key pointers to buying Indian contemporary art from artists who have never been in an international auction or do not have a price record history....

Pricing record - Let us assume you walk into an art show at one of the galleries or a friend reaches out to you and tells you that you should really buy this art work, do you take an instinctive decision or you look at some of the data before you buy ? The problem is that there is no pricing logic in the works of younger artists, I went to a show recently and saw this nice work which was 8 feet by 8 feet and the artist expected 12 lacs for the work, no pricing history, huge work but who do you sell it to later ? That is the problem, according to me the artist should have priced it at 3-4 lacs but here his price was 300 % above that and all he has to his credit is one international art show with a gallery that does not matter.

Artist Biography- Do go through in great detail on the artist biography, which college, which awards,which shows and which gallery is promoting the artist ? I went to India Habitat Centre for a Shiv Varma show, why did I go ? He has won the Kashi award and also the IHC-Art India award, so two major awards, his forte is sculpture but I loved a huge canvas which was 6 ft by 6ft and I was told that the price is 2.5 lacs which may look reasonable considering the size but his forte has always been sculpture. I liked the work but the value threshold was being crossed and so I offered a price of 2 lacs, the logic being if an artist has just come on the scene and even won some awards, the price for a new contemporary artist according to me should be in the range of 3,000 to 6,000 per square feet depending on the artist biography. Art purists may scoff at my financial transaction approach but it helps people not getting fleeced when buying art. I see artists with no background charging 15,000 to 25,000 sq ft for a painting and like many people I know, you would have a nice work of art but no investment value. Also, the younger lot is really getting carried away, they are not looking at who is collecting them and are just interested in the financial transaction at ridiculous values.

Initiative - Every couple of months, I get an email from Thukral & Tagra and Seher Shah, as to what is their next show and where are they showing next whether in India or abroad, gallery, Art fairs or museums. This gives me comfort as an art collector and also assures me that maybe I have taken the right decision, I only buy when I like the work, this just re assures me more. It is also a lovely touch by the artists to keep in touch with people who are collecting their art, even in these tough times its quite tough to get a T&T canvas but they still continue with this information.The buying process does not get over with the sale closure but you become part of a collector circle. All artists like these will weather this downturn better than our other friends who have not bothered to update their existing collectors of what is happening next.

Number of Artworks - This is another critical point, younger artists and even the top contemporary league are quite prolific, the logic last year was to make hay while the sun shines, today, values have fallen to 20 % of what the values were a year back and this is the real top league, talented but over producing. Atul Dodiya, an excellent artist by any standard showed 40 watercolours at the Bodhi show in Mumbai last year and had scores of prints in edition of 20 from STPI in Singapore also. The market just does not have enough collectors to absorb such numbers and his market crashed. Everyone who had a Subodh Gupta canvas just started putting all the works in auctions and the price crashed from 5 crores to 80 lacs and there is still enough works in the market which has more to do with art dealers ( on a personal level, Subodh is the most talented and the most humble numero uno artist you will ever meet ). Thukral & Tagra and TV Santosh have been better in this regard as they did not produce that much and are slow in getting works out of the studio, so they are safe but if you got carried away in the boom and bought a TV Santosh at 80 lacs and T&T at 60-65 lacs then you have still lost 50 % but again buying at the right price is the key. Give me a good TV Santosh canvas on terror at 20-25 lacs and I am a buyer !

Well, these are some of the points you should look at, both exhibitions that I attended last week were overpriced and I don't think would have sold more than 2-3 out of the 20 odd works.That will be art you love but please don't spend your money on something that gives you joy but no appreciation because of illogical pricing !

Cheers and till my next post !

Kapil Chopra

Artists to buy in these times - Part 2

2009-02-28T22:31:00.011+05:30

Well, its been quite some time since I updated my blog, just tied up and hence the delay in coming with a new post. Here is my second list of recommendation after the first post where I recommended that you put your money in acquiring Thukral & Tagra, Seher Shah and Shreyas Karle across various investment limits. Well here is my list on where I would put my money next and why......

T.V Santosh -30-40 lacs category- Exceptional artist,humble and down to earth. During the height of the bull run in the art market went for over 2 crores for a diptych. Currently showing at Grosvenor Vadehra in London and the prices are around 42 lacs for a 5 by 7ft paintiing, this work would have been close to 80 lacs six months back, his values are close to hitting a bottom and he enjoys universal appeal with both Indian and international collectors. I don't own a work but would love to buy one close to 30 lacs, the price he went for in the last Saffronart auction. Don't buy his watercolors and just go for nice works on canvas like the one shown below. His series on the terror theme that he has been doing for sometime is definitely worth buying into. So if you have the money, go for a TV Santosh canvas !

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Shilpa Gupta-3-5 lacs Category - Exceptional photographer and actually its nit scenic photography but photography which conveys a message. She did this lovely series on " There is no border here " where she displayed a message tape in white colour with this sentence against the backdrop of the sky, it was a nice satire on how could there be a border in the sky and also on conflicts in the real world on borders. She did a lot of pieces but the backdrop of the sky was really the best and it went for around 10 lacs in the Saffronart auction, the rest of the works in the series were quite mediocre and a lot of them are still available. Her other interesting series was post the London metro blasts in which everyone with a bag was viewed with suspicion especially with an Asian lineage, so she had people on a metro station with white bags saying"There is no explosive in this " and getting out of a car or on the street with a white bag holding this message. Considering the focus on terrorism in the real world, I believe it is a very important body of work in today's context and will find its way into important collections and museums around the world. The most stunning piece to be bought is either go for the sky background in the border series or the red work shown here in the "There is no Explosive in this". The price range for this would be around 5-6 lacs for these 2 works and others are available at around 3 lacs but again buy only the very best and avoid the rest. The current Saffronart auction has some of the works but not these two so no point bidding !

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Mehreen Murtaza -60,000-80,000 category - The new breed of Pakistani artists pushing the envelope in terms of creative work in the art space is currently growing by the day. Mehreen is an exceptionally talented artist and she does these lovely prints priced at around 60-80,000 the last time I checked for a size of around 12 by 24 inches and edition of 10. Mehreen is an artist who has immense potential in the long term although I believe she should look at restricting edition sizes to less than 6 and do larger prints. Look at her work at http://www.greynoise.org/ a great art gallery run by Umer Butt in Lahore, Mehreen showed in India with Farah Siddiqui in Mumbai also but her latest body of works is available at Greynoise.org, the only problem being buying out of Pakistan, so easier to buy out of Dubai and a star on the horizon. Look at the images of the series she has done here to get an idea of her potential and at these values you really cant go wrong !

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Well, next time lets look at the Saffronart auction results (some great works especially NS Harsha but overall a really mediocre auction line up, at least 7 artists have works which are poor enough to be not even selling in a show forget being part of an auction catalogue) and let me talk to you about how some artists have positioned themselves well and how some got carried away in the bull run, failed to build relationships and need to learn to be playing for the long term !

Till then, enjoy reading, keep the comments coming and have a great day !

Should new collectors be buying Souza,Hussain and Raza ?

2009-02-05T22:23:00.008+05:30

This is going to be quite a controversial post but then this blog has never shied away from discussing controversial topics. We also have a strong viewpoint of our own and as they say "Only dead fish swim with the stream", here is my take on buying the moderns.

Before I really started collecting art, the only name that I could always relate to was that of M. F.Hussain, everyone has heard of him and he really is an iconic artist. The moment you start reading you hear of S.H. Raza and F.N. Souza and then you see the works. What happens in the real world is that you really want to acquire a work from one of the three and declare finally to the whole world that you have arrived and are now an art collector in the big league.

One of the most high profile CEO's of a leading travel company was having a discussion with me and we started talking about art, now he is no art buyer with price research and having made some good money on property deals went ahead and bought a Hussain work for close to 10 million. Now, his art gallery based in South Delhi was telling him to buy another artist who I think is terribly overpriced but trust some galleries to do this. I can give you 5 more examples of people I know who have been conned in buying a high priced work of the famous trio.

Now, for all new collectors, this is the first thing that I would like you all to stay away from. There are reasons for this and some of them are as given below...

Most of the new collectors would not know the period as to when these great artists produced the best works like Souza was at his best in the 1950's and early 60's, Raza works post 2002 do not compare well with his earlier works and so on. Most likely you would not get a significant work and actually be given a work which is not from the best time period at astronomical valuations. So develop that discerning eye, read some more before you sink in that 30 lacs to a crore on a work.

Most new collectors buy to talk about it and announce that they have arrived on the scene, also with a con story that they hear as to how the values would double.

A lot of older collectors who entered at 10,000 to a lac would try and convince you to buy at much higher prices showing some auction records and make a killing selling it at a higher price. Remember their acquisition price is really low and they would be making a 1000 % profit.

Souza made thousands of chemical drawings and at the height of the boom they went for 5 to 6 lacs for a small work, real value is close to 50,000 if you really like the work.So there is no demand -supply equation here, there are scores and scores of works available.

As an advisory blog, we cover investments till 30-35 lacs at the maximum and in that price range ,your chances of getting a good quality work are quite bleak in the modern space especially of the famous trio.

So please pass the work on, why start collecting with an unfair advantage, buy some good contemporary art, if you still have the money and convinced about the Moderns, then please buy a nice VS Gaitonde or a Tyeb Mehta, they have been much less prolific and clear my aesthetic and also my investment logic. Otherwise please buy a nice Hussain print for up to 50,000 and enjoy the print signed by him, there are enough options available in the print section both for Hussain and Raza, prints are both on paper and canvas for Raza.

So if this post helps some of my friends not getting conned into buying insignificant works just to acquire a name then we have achieved our goal of educating our base of new collectors and for my friends who have already made this mistake, try and enjoy the work !

Happy Reading ! and get ready for my next post on "Artists to buy in these times - Part 2"

Went to the Khushi auction yesterday, very well organised, excellent audience, great cause and lovely people, some excellent art and some was quite average but the cause is great. I bid on the TV Santosh which was lovely but the investment limit was 12 lacs and it went for 18 lacs plus tax which crossed my investment threshold, so no matter how much you like the work, the key is to be disciplined. I think Khushi as a NGO has done a wonderful job and I look forward to many more of such events and also as a hotelier supporting such events.

Cheers

Kapil Chopra

My views on the Best Galleries and websites !

2009-01-25T19:59:00.014+05:30

I have often been asked on how do I really get the information on all the artists, the shows and the galleries, so here are some of my secrets on doing that from the comfort of your home and also my honest views on some of the galleries I have worked with.

Now, I can afford to be brutally honest as this is not a commercial venture, I am not recommending any gallery, telling you to buy another artist, not building a halo around me for being an art critic and so on, I am an art collector, read a lot about art, have some very good friends who are more knowledgeable than me on this subject. I just learn from them, merge it with my acquired knowledge, use my experience of other asset classes and then give you a real frank opinion of what's happening in the art world and how you can be a savvy collector.

Well, before you start reading this, be very alert when a gallery tells you that this is an artist you should hold for 7-10 years as that means even they don't where the artist is going, 7-10 years as you will forget about the work even if the artist stops selling. Look at art history, some of the top names of 1990's just vanished after the first crash and so collectors are actually sitting with art that has only aesthetic value. I have just heard so much of this illogical gibberish that I am honestly fed up, why would you put in 20 lacs and then just forget about it in the name of building a collection ? ! What this does is that it gives people enough time to at least con you more and make the neat packet they make.

Buy a work you like, research the artist, look at the gallery promoting, enjoy the work, contemplate on the future of the artist, a right gallery makes sure the artist is seen and shown in the right galleries and promoted well.Also even from an investment perspective don't buy to flip as you will then fail and may be caught on the top of the pyramid with no buyers at your price. I read up tonnes of material on an artist before I make the buying decision and speak to some really intelligent people for their views on the artist and then use my own judgement. Have I still made mistakes ? Yes ! I have and I will dedicate a complete post to that later, you will end up laughing your guts out on how I approached buying art.

Well here are the top 3 galleries that I really like as I love their attention to detail, the artists they represent and also their presence on the net so people like me and others can check it out. I will also give you a couple of galleries who are well regarded but have real poor presence on the net, they don't believing in sharing information and have outdated websites, but collectors swear by them, so please visit them in person, my take is that please close down your website if you cannot update it, why the formality !

1. Sakshi Gallery - Located in Colaba, Mumbai, they are one of the most professional galleries I have worked with, they will post all the images on the website, are quick with the responses and have some of the top artists represented. Have good young talent that you should watch out for in Gurusidappa and Anirban Mitra, I bought the Anirban from them and it was a pleasure working with them. Both Geeta & Usha are really nice people in this space and run a tight ship.Visit them at www.sakshigallery.com

2. Nature Morte/Bose Pacia- Peter Nagy runs Nature Morte in New Delhi and he is undoubtedly a very influential figure in the contemporary space. In the art boom, a mere mention of an artist by him would lead to a sold out show. They had the worst website that could ever be designed and now thankfully have revamped it with a great website, you know all the future shows, images are updated in time and its a delight to surf it. This is a must visit website as you get a fair idea on whats happening in the art world and also because they are really good at what they do. Visit them at www.naturemorte.com and you can also check out www.bosepacia.com

3.Kashi Art Gallery - Anoop and Dorrie run this lovely gallery and last year celebrated 10 years of running the gallery. They have represented some of the brightest stars on the Indian art scene and their Kashi award given every year to promising artists is close to a sure shot sign of going ahead and buying the artist. I bought some Shreyas Karle works for them and in all fairness they would not send the images to me but were insistent on putting them online at 6 PM that day so everyone had an equal chance to see and buy. Do visit their website at www.kashiartgallery.com and track the Kashi awards in September every year.They take their art very seriously and that is why its a pleasure to work with them. They could improve on their website though.

Now the 2 galleries that can really improve, Gallery Chemould is one of the most respected galleries in the art world, please visit the website and you will see that works available has not been updated for months, an email for a request to update had a very polite response of them not doing it on the net, they why have a presence ?

Gallery Ske, again very well respected in new age media and very different art from what you generally see but exhibition images are never updated on time, although they have a very good archive section of past exhibitions. Now, for a new media gallery to be not good in this respect is not really understood and also never got a response to an email that I sent so best of luck with them !

Enjoy your art but please read and consult your gallerists and advisors before you buy anything. Also if they tell you this 10 year story, you know where they should be going ! and then their are always better ways to lose money !

Till, my next post on the 31st, have a great time !

Art, Commerce and Galleries !

2009-01-13T16:10:00.009+05:30

Well, that is a quite a different title from my last one which was which artists should you buy and collect !

Thank you for all the emails, considering that maybe only 20-25 people know about the existence of this blog, it was nice to get a response from nearly every one including some celebrities in my dictionary ! Well, if you are a key stock market speaker on CNBC and reading this blog, its quite flattering for me. Also some of the most important people in the Indian art space have been more than encouraging.

As more and more people know about our small existence, I thought for most of the new collectors or aspiring collectors, its important for me to share some views on the commerce of investing in art so you know what you are really paying for the art work.

Gallery Commissions - If you are coming in from any other asset class, be prepared to get shocked as you are used to paying 1-2 % as transaction charges or brokerage, in art gallery commissions are a minimum of 33 % to 50 % ! so if you pay 2 lacs for a work that you have acquired then 66,000 to 1 lac could be the cut for the gallery and the rest goes to the artist. Now this is fine when you are paying 2 lacs, it gets better for the galleries when you are buying a painting worth 25 lacs, as the gallery takes in 8 to 12.5 lacs as its commission. The question that new collectors may ask is that are these mark ups justified, well, I think in some cases they are, running a gallery is an expensive business, with retail space, cost of catalogues and collateral if you are running it right. The problem is that most of the galleries have no curatorial content and they basically get the works on a consignment basis so they are showing over 100 artists and happy selling 2 to 3 works per month. Serious galleries have to spend money on discovering, promoting and marketing an artist, have lesser shows and hence they deserve the 50 % mark up, they would happily give you a 10 to 20 % discount if you are buying regularly. So remember this when you buy a work, hence it is even more critical to research the artist and the gallery before cutting a cheque, as otherwise you may have a work that looks nice but has no asset value as no one will buy it. In these times, the best of galleries are maybe selling 2-3 works a month and even with 50 % margins,they are not breaking even on costs,liquidity or the lack of liquidity in this market is also a key factor gallery commissions. If you are re selling a work through a gallery, the general norm is 10 % of the sales price as gallery commission and could be lower for big ticket sales.

Galleries are important to showcase art and also discover new forms of art and hence it always makes sense for you to track what key galleries are doing, I will give you that list in my next blog with my frank opinion on websites you should visit to look at how people are shaping up the art space.

Auction Houses- They are another source of buying and selling art, Christies, Sothebys, Artcurial, Philips De Pury are some of the key international auction houses and Saffronart being my pick in the Indian space and even the international space. Minal & Dinesh Vazirani have re defined this space and definitely go to http://www.saffronart.com/ and explore the website. My favourite sections are Previous Auctions,Collection of the month and also Collector's Corner which is updated on the 1st of every month. Auction houses will typically charge you a 10 to 25 % buyers premium over your price and take 10 % as sellers commission if you are selling the work. International auction houses will charge extra on a lot of small charges so please be extra careful if you are selling something. If you like something, then it is a great place to buy due to attractive prices, proven authenticity and exhibition record of a work.

Well, I hope this gives you a fair idea on the commerce of buying and selling art and do let me know if you have any questions, you can email me at indianartreview@gmail.com, leave a comment here or on my page at http://www.indianartnews.com

Enjoy your art !

P.S - the next blog post would be a critical take on India's top Galleries and some of their websites that I visit regularly.

Artists to buy in these times ! Part 1

2009-01-04T18:46:00.021+05:30

Here is my list in all categories of artists that I would like to buy, enjoy and invest in. The key principle is to enjoy the art you buy, you should like it and that's important, secondly you should buy it at the right value and last, buy art that is investment worthy. Do not buy art recommended by the bored housewives club (80 % of all art galleries in India qualify in this category ), look at the background of the artist, education, inspiration for work, gallery promoting the artist and where all has that art been shown. As most of the people who will follow this blog when I release it open for public viewing be new or fairly new art enthusiasts, hence I will restrict the values to under Rs.30 lacs to start and start with Rs.10,000.So here is my top pick in each category to start with....

(Sominum Genero)

30 -35 lacs category - I just love these guys, they are the most intelligent artists I have ever met, they research in detail as to what they would like to paint and then follow the theme through. The works and installation look nice, have a theme and they have international collectors lining up for their work. They have shown at key fairs like Art Basel, FIAC and others and were in the news recently with their show at Mori Musuem. Wallapaper magazine ranked them among the top 101 designers in the world and they are Thukral & Tagra. They are my top pick in this category, for the level of international interest they generate, their art and the logic behind, make them great artists to buy. In the Asia Contemporary Sothebys sale where only 19 of the 31 lots sold, their work went for over 110 lacs when some top Indian artists failed to sell, that is not a criteria but just a comment. Their interesting work on AIDS, Somnium Genero ( dreams ) and Bosedk are some of the key series that they have worked on. Difficult to get a work of theirs, till you are on the collector list of Peter Nagy and gallery Nature Morte(http://www.naturemorte.com/). Pricing is for a 6 by 6 work in the primary market, they have had a work at Saffronart sold for less but according to the artists it was a part of a series and should not have been sold on its own.

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(Black Star)

3-5 lacs category - This is a great category, its affordable and if you like her art, then I believe in some years she will be in the above mentioned category. She is one of the young stars on the horizon, very talented and has already shown at Art Basel, her work was sold out at Armoury and at Fiac in October. Her work has been placed at the world famous Musuem of Modern Art ( MOMA) in the US and she recieves rave reviews from all art critics, Seher Shah as a notable art collector says is a "superstar". She is known for her drawings and her prints, I like both, the thing to die for her are her large prints around 60 by 36 inches in her series on Jihad Pop and Projective 1 & 2. Visit her website http://www.sehershah.net/ and http://www.bosepacia.com/ for her work details and do buy her if you can get any of the sizable works. The work shown above is a series of smaller works under the name Black Star, I like the bigger works which will be priced now at around USD 8,000 to 10,000 whenever they are released, the size for the older works was around 60 inches by 36 inches and they were sold between USD 3,000 to 5,000 but none available now.

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(Har Darwaze Pe Likha Hai Rehne Wale Ka Naam)

Rs.10,000 -20,000 - Yes, you read it right ! you can start investing and buying art that you like even at this value and it is investment worthy. Shreyas Karle has won the Bodhi award and then followed it up with the Kashi Award for a promising artist, passing out from Baroda, he is quite refreshing in his approach and again very intelligent. I have been following his work for long and was very impressed with his award winning show " Har Darwaza pe likha hai rehne wale ka naam" at Kashi art gallery ( http://www.kashiartgallery.com/). All the doors have an identity in these limited edition works and are smiling or dancing, very quirky and nice works, the show opened recently and I remember Dorrie telling me that it was sold out in 3 hours ! Works were sold at 10,000 each and I believe he is someone to watch out for in the coming times. The size was 11 by 15 inches and with 2 Artist proofs plus 7 editions.

These are the artists who according to me are in the best buy category even in these recessionary times and more so now because you may not get good quality works at the prices that you can get them now at. Two out of three come from Nature Morte/ Bose Pacia due to respect that I have for Peter Nagy and the work that he has done to promote Indian contemporary art. Although in my last blog post, I did not agree with their pricing on Hema Upadhayay who is terribly over priced, also over producing and in my avoid category for the time being. My next blog will highlight some other artists that I really like, are international in their appeal and collector base and have the potential to achieve greater heights.

Ardent art lovers and collectors may get upset with my obsession on commercal aspects of buying art but this as the title suggests is "indianartinvest", I will always tell you to buy what you like and enjoy but at the right price and most important it has to be investment worthy i.e. should have potential for appreciation in the future.

Disclaimer- Please assume that I may have a vested interest in promoting these artists and may own some of the works mentioned here. Please acquire these works only after due diligence and consultations with your art advisors and gallerists.

Enjoy your art and keep on reading !

My views on the current Indian art market !

2008-12-23T16:06:00.007+05:30

Well, its been a long time since I updated my blog, all financial markets have gone down further and so the over heated art market finally is coming down. Sales have stopped as everyone now takes a view as to who all would survive this recession. My view on this subject is quite simple, artists who have the humility to accept the new market realities would survive, also some of them just kept painting or doing the same concept to death, they would fall on the side.

To give you an example of the new market realities, just look at the TV Santosh work in the saffronart auction, it was an above average work ( not excellent though) and it went for 27 lacs for a 54 by 70 inch work,just 6 months back you would have been lucky to get it for even 80 lacs, so that is the kind of drop in prices we are talking about, Subodh Gupta, undoubtedly India's top contemporary artist has seen prices come down from 4-5 Crores to 1 crore and in private deals even at 80 lacs. This is the reality of the art market, a lot of blogs and gallery owners, art fund managers, so called curators would go on about how we should buy what we like and art is not about the value per square feet and all that.

I was surprised to see Hema Upadhayay works sold at Bodhi Singapore and in auctions immediately, most of them could not even manage a premium over what they were sold at. She is currently doing a show at Nature Morte, but over production never helped anyone.She is hardly moving and who is going to buy her work at 16 lacs when at Christie's she could only manage 13 !

I also feel its a great time to start collecting and your budget could be anything, I will detail out my favourite picks in my next blog but not before I dissect some shows and auction results for you !

Till then keep on reading !

Why Invest in Indian Contemporary art ? Part 2

2008-11-10T16:21:00.006+05:30

In this post we are going to talk about, how to start investing in art. Don't get me wrong,I am not against art aesthetics or buying art just for enjoying it but then this blog is just not about that only. So read on,only if you not only like to enjoy your art but approach it like any other asset class. The advantage with art is that you can enjoy the work while it appreciates in value unless you are saddled with a work that you enjoy but it has no investment value, like 90% of the art that you would buy in galleries or buy without research.

So how should you start.....

The first key is to start reading, the best magazine that you get on the Indian art space is Arts India which is a quarterly and always comes late ! The magazine is well laid out and has interesting articles, form the advertisements you come to know what is really happening in the art world with solo shows and exhibitions.

The second magazine is Art & Deal to start with, its getting better by the day but lacks critique so its more like a round up of whats happening instead of really interesting articles, that's an area where they can improve on. So head to the news stand and start reading.

Become a member of http://www.indianartnews.com/ as its the best social networking website on Indian art today, read some of the discussions there.

Here is a short cut so that you at least have some basics to start with as an exercise, log on to http://www.saffronart.com/ and go the previous auctions section, now make a list of all artists which have been repeated in the contemporary auctions not the modern ones, this will give you a list of 20 odd names and these are the ones to start tracking, so no buying till now but just track these artists across various auctions in Saffronart to see how their price has moved over the years.

I think this is a quite a lot before you move on to the next post, Happy Reading !

Do leave your comments or suggestions, If I can help with anything !

Why invest in Indian Contemporary art ? Part 1

2008-10-28T14:34:00.000+05:30

The moment someone recommends that you invest in Indian contemporary art, is your response any of the following......

I don't understand art or valuation of art, I have no idea what to buy, how to buy and generally I think people are crazy to be paying 1-50 lacs for a painting !
It is safer to invest in shares of companies you understand(This has really changed in the last few days as no one really saw this massive crash coming !), Gold, Fixed deposits,Real Estate or other easy to understand assets
I don't know how to buy, research or sell a painting, the appreciation that people talk about or I read in the Economic times or magazines, is it for real ?
Too complicated for me, I can enjoy a nice painting but it cannot be an asset class on its own, who buys art ?

Well, then welcome to this blog where I will take each of these questions and share the responses with you threadbare !

Think about all the responses to the questions or comments mentioned above before you jump to the next blog post,your learning in how to invest in Indian contemporary art has begun !

Cheers

Kapil Chopra

Welcome to the magical world of Indian art !

2008-10-26T20:20:00.000+05:30

Welcome to the magical world of Indian art !

The financial markets all over the world are in a tailspin and all I read nowadays are warning bells for the Indian contemporary and modern art market, so why start a blog at this time ?!

This blog is for all those people who are just getting in to invest in Indian art, this blog will take you through all the pitfalls and how you can prosper from this asset class.Also after understanding the basics of investing in 15 days, you have to promise to read and I will guide you through this journey which I after tireless reading discovered gave me the knowledge to beat more than 95 % of the galleries, collectors and advisors as they all had a vested interest. This blog salutes the Indian investor and as Khushwant Singh says has "Malice towards one and all" especially if you are a gallery,artist or an art advisor. This blog will help you in......

Understanding the Indian art market without the usual long drawn out notes on art history and our glorious culture, yes we all know that so no point in repeating it.
Valuation of art- How are artworks of Indian artists valued and what is the pricing logic, I will use my extensive experience in stock markets and other asset classes to guide you as to how I made an enviable art portfolio in less than 18 months and how to avoid the sharks ! I say sharks because there is no price transparency in this market and half the guys who will say that art is all about the aesthetics, yes it is but its all about the money, honey !
This blog will tell you on how to invest in art even if you have a budget of Rs.10,000 and how that can appreciate in the 2-5 year time frame where you enjoy the work on your wall and it grows in the financial space also giving better returns than stocks, Real estate and other asset classes.
Also, if you ever ask us a buying question, we promise to give you a real insider view on whats happening in the art world and guide you.
Views on current art shows,artists to buy and also Galleries and curators to look out for in this journey, also artists never to buy, how to avoid art shows organised by private banks and wealth management divisions and protect your capital.

Happy Reading and join me on this wonderful journey, do post in your comments and if I say something that you don't agree with , I appreciate your views so nothing personal !

Cheers

Kapil Chopra